Orchestra prepares for special concert

Program will perform different music for Halloween concert

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Jada Csikos Monroe

Senior Aedan Foner helps tune junior Benjamin ‘s cello during class Sept.

Mimi Fhima

Orchestra director Miriam Edgar said she and the students are prepared and excited for the upcoming, halloween-themed concert.

Edgar said the orchestra will play a different style of music for this concert to make it more fun.

“Students get to have a say in the some of the music,” Edgar said. “We’ll be playing Hunger Games, we’ll be playing Frozen, and Brave. We’ll be playing all sorts of fun movie music.”

Sophomore violinist Ilana Meisler said the orchestra will play various Halloween-styled pieces at the upcoming concert.

“We have about seven different pieces that we will be playing and some of them are halloween pieces or scarier sounding music,” Meisler said. “It’s a different style of music.”

According to Meisler, the orchestra is well-prepared for this concert and put in a lot of effort to learn the music.

“We have rehearsals every school day and we’ve been learning the music and practicing it,” Meisler said. “We stay together for most of it and I think we are prepared.”

In order to prepare for the concert, Meisler said the orchestra worked on different sections of instruments to improve the songs.

“(The teacher) picks one or two songs that we run through for the day. She’ll listen to us first and then pick out spots for each section of instruments to work on,” Meisler said.

One of the challenges was finding enough space for the growing orchestra, Edgar said.

“There are about 100 people that will be playing,” Edgar said. “We actually can’t fit that many chairs (in the lunchroom) so only the cellos will be sitting and everyone else will be standing around them.”

Edgar said she thinks the students are happy to have the opportunity to dress-up in costumes and play together as an orchestra.

“The kids get to wear costumes if they want,” Edgar said. “I think the students will be really excited because it’s the first time we get to play with everybody this year.”

Meisler said she anticipates the concert to be different yet more enjoyable than the other types of concerts the orchestra performs.

“There are some cool sound effects, like screams in the middle of songs, so it’s definitely not going to be a formal all black concert,” Meisler said. “We get to dress up and hopefully it will be more fun.”

The concert will take place Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in the high school lunchroom.