The Park orchestra performs three concerts per year. They performed their “Pops Concert,” which is the first concert of the year, on Dec. 8 in the high school auditorium. The performance consisted of bases, cellos, violas and violins. Later in the year, there will be a “Winter Concert” (also known as the “Valentine’s Concert”), and the “Alumni Concert,” where alumni or older players will perform.
According to senior violinist Susannah Israel, something that makes a prosperous orchestra performance is if you all work with one another. She said listening to others around you is crucial to sounding good as an orchestra.
“A successful orchestra performance is one that’s cohesive,” Israel said. “It’s not about having a few people who are really good and play really loud. It’s about having everyone work together. Specifically, (having) cellos and violins working together and all the different sections working together, and not just only listening to yourself. You have to listen to others play as well.”
According to orchestra director Kou Lee, the greatest difficulty in preparing for the orchestra concert was the challenging pieces of music they had to practice. He said a lot of music parts are easy for most, but there are still difficult parts.
“Some of the pieces have some pretty difficult stuff in it, so we expect a lot of days on just really small stuff,” Lee said. “A lot of this stuff is pretty easy for students, but there are some parts that are just pretty difficult.”
According to junior violist Erin Eichten, she gets ready by practicing on her own so that she’s well prepared to practice as a group in class.
“To prepare, I practice the individual things that I know that I struggle more with at home, so then we can rehearse well in class and just line everything up,” Eichten said.
Israel said she’s been playing violin since she was young. She said she chose it because she wanted to try an instrument that wasn’t a piano, and the violin was an inviting choice for her.
“I’ve been playing violin since I was eight years old,” Israel said. “I chose it because I wanted to try something new. I’d been playing piano, but playing violin was really appealing because I didn’t know it yet, and I just wanted to learn.”
Lee said the connection of students from prior grades has fostered collaboration for students as well as being musicians.
“A lot of students start(ed) together in elementary school, and so they know each other through elementary, middle school and high school,” Lee said. “So just continuing to allow them to have opportunities to connect with one another (allowing them to collaborate).”
Eichten said she helps the orchestra by being a section leader and helping make sure everyone’s doing the correct things. She said Park’s orchestra musicians work together by meeting in class to listen to each other’s parts, rather than just listening to their own.
“I contribute to the overall sound and dynamics of the orchestra by being a section leader,” Eichten said. “I help my section do the right accents and dynamics that we need and just make the viola section (be) together. We work together by meeting, class practice (and) listening to the other parts while we play and not just ourselves, so we can line up right so everything comes together.”
According to Israel, the pieces that are hardest to play are those with rests and difficult sheet music. She said a song from ‘Star Wars’ that they played at the concert requires the most need for cohesion between orchestra sections.
“Usually pieces that involve a lot of rests and complicated stuff (are the most difficult to perform),” Israel said. “‘March of the Resistance’ from ‘Star Wars’ is probably our most complicated piece and requires the most teamwork from our section.”
