The upper school orchestra hosted their first performance in the new Patil Theater with the Santa Monica High School Wind Symphony in the Santa Monica exchange concert on March 8. A week after, Jazz Band and Lab Band performed in annual jazz concert An Evening of Jazz.

According to instrumental music teacher Chris Florio, the main goal of the Santa Monica concert was to break in the theater for later performances.

“The big thing was to kind of get a feeling for how the theater sounds when it’s set up for instrumental performance, how long it takes to transport our instruments down the stage, things like that,” Florio said. “It was a great opportunity to test all those things out; the next time we go in won’t be nearly as challenging. That goal was definitely met.”

The orchestra played a variety of compositions, including “Danzon No. 2,” “Night on Bald Mountain” and “Overture to The School of Scandal.”

Anika Fuloria (9) enjoyed listening to the Santa Monica symphony, holding their band in high regard.

“We played a joint concert with the Santa Monica High School Wind Symphony,” she said. “They’re really good; it was really fun to listen to them and learn about how their orchestra works. They have really great conductors too.”

Florio added that playing on the Saratoga campus relieved the orchestra of a large amount of stress due to the small transition required to set up the instruments for a concert. The Santa Monica concert and An Evening of Jazz were the second and third performances to take place in the Patil Theater following the United Voices concert in February.

“It took so much of the stress of the concerts we used to do, whether it was at Blackford or at Mexican Heritage of wherever, so much of the stresses were just nonexistent because we were here. It was just very little transition; we were set up and the afternoons leading up to the concerts were relaxed. It just made for a homey experience,” he said.

The Santa Monica concert enjoyed a full house in attendance listening to the 100 performers from Harker’s orchestra and the 75 from Santa Monica’s.

Joshua Valluru (10) plays guitar in Jazz Band and appreciated the opportunity to play with a younger band for An Evening of Jazz.

“We performed with them [the middle school students] only at the end, one song,” he said. “It was pretty nice because we had to introduce ourselves to the younger kids and tell them a little bit about the high school program and what they had to look forward to. But apart from playing with them, we didn’t get a chance to play too much. Because we were there at one point, when we were in their shoes at one point, seeing that transition was really cool.”

The upper and middle schools will perform in a combined concert on April 13. The performing arts department will hold showings of this year’s spring musical “42nd Street” the week after from April 19 to 21 in the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on March 29, 2018.

Gallery • 3 Photos

A middle school student plays an upright bass during An Evening of Jazz. "We performed with them [the middle school students] only at the end, one song. It was pretty nice because we had to introduce ourselves to the younger kids and tell them a little bit about the high school program and what they had to look forward to. But apart from playing with them, we didn't get a chance to play too much. Because we were there at one point, when we were in their shoes at one point, seeing that transition was really cool," Jazz Band member Joshua Valluru (10) said.