Warm orange lights illuminate the stage as Lab Band settles into their chairs, carefully preparing their instruments. With the flick of the conductor’s wrist, music flows and reverberates throughout the Patil Theater, marking the start of the annual Winter Instrumental Concert.

Held on Jan. 13, the concert invited audiences to watch multiple upper school instrumental groups and soloists perform various musical styles, ranging from upbeat Latin jazz to slow ballads. The Winter Instrumental Concert is the only concert of the year that features Orchestra, Jazz Band and Lab Band, allowing audiences to experience different musical styles.

The concert commenced with Lab Band’s take on “I Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin, a jazz standard known for its chord progression; “Lady Bird” by Tadd Dameron, a celebrated sixteen-bar jazz standard and “Thanks Hank” by John La Barbera, a jazz piece that features a medium swing style. 

“The preparation for the Winter Concert went really well,” Lab Band member Shiven Balaji (10) said. “It was pretty fun to collaborate with my teammates and work with them for the concert.”

Despite the concert’s success, the performers faced challenges along the way. However, they were able to overcome these obstacles as a team and create a cohesive performance for the community. 

“We had to rearrange the instrumental because we ran into some problems,” Shiven said. “It was a little difficult, but I think we bonded over that experience and got closer to each other. A lot of the pieces were really fun to play, and I enjoyed preparing for the concert.”

Jazz Band then performed the powerful and satirical jazz song “Fables of Faubus” by Charles Mingus and “At Last” by Harry Warren, a jazz piece with romantic lyrics, with vocalist Miki Mitarai (11). Then, they performed three more songs: “Ran Kan Kan” by Tito Puente, “Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma and “Spain” by Chick Corea. 

Orchestra followed by playing the First Movement of Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” by Ludwig van Beethoven, an innovative work that broke symphonic standard, as well as “Banner” by Jessie Montgomery, a modern rendition of “Star-Spangled Banner” based on traditional modern band form. 

Pieces like “Banner” and “Fables of Faubus” and composers such as Shostakovich and Beethoven introduced a political undertone to the concert, as upper school instrumental music teacher Jaco Wong noted.

“Many of these pieces are very political,” Wong said. “The reasons to compose them was to have some political meaning behind the time there, the time of the concert. So it indirectly connected all of them together.”

Wong also reflected on the process of arranging the concert and selecting which pieces would be performed. 

“It’s a mixture of knowing the ability of the students and also how much I want to push them,” Wong said. “And then also bringing in a diverse programming of various styles and voices, different kinds of composers, [music] from different periods and cultural backgrounds and making sure that students are exposed to different musical voices.”

Orchestra concluded the concert with “Fantaisie Pastorale Hongroise” by Franz Doppler, a piece based on Hungarian folk tunes which featured a flute solo by Ashley Ma (12), and Symphony No. 5, Movement 4 Finale by Dmitri Shostakovich, a bombastic piece filled with complex melodies and motives. 

“The Ashley Ma flute solo was a big highlight of the concert,” Wong said. “You get to feature different seniors, very virtuosic soloists, each year. So I think that’s a feature of our concert.”