The light dimmed in the theater and the crowd fell silent. The curtains opened, the performers walked to their seats and the show began. The upper school orchestra, jazz band lab band performed at the annual Winter Concert at the Mexican Heritage Theater on Jan. 15.

The concert showcased upper school and middle school instrumental groups and featured soloists from each group.

The orchestra performed Bernstein’s “Candide Overture,” “Capriccio Espagnol” by Rimsky-Korsakov, “Four Dance Episodes From ‘Rodeo’” by Copland, “Flute Concertino” by Chaminade featuring flute soloist Victoria Ding (12) and “Bacchanale from ‘Samson and Delilah’” by Saint-Saëns.

Upper school orchestra conductor Chris Florio spoke about the dramatic orchestra roster changes and how it affected performance expectations for the Winter Concert.

“I’m mostly excited for everyone to hear these groups because they don’t know what to expect and how strong we are this year,” Florio said. “We lost a really strong senior class last year, so people have curious expectations. For a lot of these players, this is their first performance in high school because we have a lot of new players this year.”

Prior to the concert, the orchestra rehearsed with respective instrumental groups before coming together to practice as an orchestra. Principal violist Luke Wu (12) described the difficulties in managing the progress of other violists in his section.

“Putting together the Winter Concert was a lot of work, especially for the principals,” Luke said. “We had to arrange sectionals, which was basically dedicated time in which principles teach the rest of their section how to play a certain passage and synchronize.”

As a new member of the upper school orchestra, violinist Constance Horng (9) experienced the level of hard work put into sectional and general rehearsals.

“We’ve all been working really hard, and all the sections have been doing sectionals during long lunch and after school,” Constance said. “We usually just have rehearsals with everyone during school, but sometimes leaders use sectionals to make [our pieces] stronger.”

Flute principal and soloist in the Winter Concert Victoria Ding (12) performed a flute solo in Chaminade’s “Flute Concertino.”

“I feel very honored that the entire orchestra will be accompanying me since it’s really special because I’ve been part of this orchestra since I came to Harker,” she said. “I know a lot of these people, and it’s really cool that I am playing with them.”

Jazz Band has also been working hard in preparation for their pieces for the Winter Concert: “Crescent City Stomp” by Dave Brubeck, “88 Basie Street” by Sammy Nestico, “It Don’t Mean a Thing” by Duke Ellington, “Summertime” by George Gershwin, “All Of Me” by Simons and Markis and “Mosaic” by Bob Mintzer.

Lab Band, led by director David Hart, performed a variety of pieces across many genres, mainly jazz.

“The most challenging part of the process was coordinating the large arrangements, because everyone needed to play their part perfectly so that it would sound correct,” Saxophone player Bobby Schick (10) said.

Florio commented on not only the difficulty of the pieces that the various instrumental groups are playing, but also the anticipation that they build for the performance.

“It has been a challenge because we are playing such difficult repertoires, but it’s been a long way,” Florio said. “[Students] have been working on this stuff since they came to school, so this one performance has had a big build up.”

Following the Winter Concert, the upper school orchestra will travel in March to Sonoma and will perform in April at the Spring Concert.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on January 27, 2016.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Nicole Chen

Victoria Ding (12) performs a solo in Chaminade's "Flute Concertino" with the upper school orchestra. The upper school orchestra performed at the Winter Concert on Jan. 15 at the Mexican Heritage Theater.