The Fall Concert
Conductor and teacher Michelle Ellis leads her symphony orchestra through a challenging and complex song.
November 18, 2022
LONG BEACH, CA- At the start of this school year, many students were preparing for their first performance. For seniors, this will be one of their last performances here at Wilson. Some seniors share their experiences of their Fall Performance, and some of their excitement for the upcoming future, as well as set an example of leadership for their underclassmen.
The night of Wednesday, November 2, musicians of different skill levels spanning from intermediate to advanced perform for an audience for their Fall performance. Their teachers prepared these students with a wide variety of music to show their friends and family the skills and hard work they put into their class.
Many of these students in the advanced music placement are seniors and are graduating this year. Their teacher allows them to decide if they would like to have a chance of having a senior solo.
Kate Johnson, a senior in the Arts Pathway who plays the violin in the Advanced Chamber Orchestra, was one of those seniors who was able to play a solo piece. She had her fellow classmates in the advanced chamber support her in her performance.
“I think I performed well,” she said, ”It was probably the best I’ve ever played it, and it was at a performance. So I found that it was pretty good.” Kate had gotten a lot of good feedback on her performance that night, and left the audience stunned.
Jacob Malonzo, a senior in the WAVE pathway who plays the viola in the Advanced Chamber Orchestra, had words to say about the performance, as well as Kate Johnson’s solo.
“I believed that we performed really well. I’ve been getting a lot of comments back, specifically on the Mozart Piece and how well it was done,” Jacob said. “Kate’s solo was beautiful and the orchestra backed her up perfectly.” As a whole, he felt that the group did an amazing job of a performance for just the beginning of the year.
Just as the strings worked very hard in the show, the winds and percussion also had put out an outstanding performance. There was the Saxophone Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, and the Symphony Winds who played with the Symphony Strings.
“I thought I did alright; I was pretty prepared for my parts,” said senior Maxwell Casem in the Performing Arts Pathway. ”I had sports-related things before the concert, so I did not perform the best that I wanted to, but I think the overall band sounded pretty good. It’s the first concert of the year, so I didn’t expect it to be great. But we sounded pretty great.”
He believes that there is need for improvement in any group, but they did great regardless. Maxwell, who plays the euphonium, explains that since he is the section leader, he feels that his group lacks confidence. He feels that if they practiced more, or had more confidence, they would have a better performance. Since the brass section is a low instrument, they really have to go all out in order to be heard.
Most students who are in the music program are not pursuing any music after they graduate, but Max and Jacob both share that they still want to play music outside of high school. However, they would like to play for a community or just to keep playing for themselves, not study it in school. Kate, on the other hand, wants to be a music educator. She said, “Ever since I was a little girl, I said to myself that I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else.”
The performing arts students are now preparing for a grand performance to kick off their Winter season of music. Many of the students are very excited about playing their holiday songs and performing for their friends and family at school. This is one of Wilson High School’s biggest performances of the year.
Many students find the Winter show to be very fun, so they are very excited for this concert to come. They feel good when they get positive feedback from their family, friends, and the teachers who watch the performance.
Throughout the year, you will see more and more solos, and amazing performances given out from Wilson’s Strings, Winds, and Percussion.
