Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble gave spring concert honoring Seniors

Superheroes and symphonies flew together at Park’s spring band concert, their last performance of the year. The concert recognized graduating seniors for their achievements and years of participation, and featured both the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, held May 7.

    The world premiere of one piece, performed by the Wind Ensemble, was composed by Seniors Thaine Heller and David Takata, titled “Iron Skies.”

Takata said the piece, inspired by classic science fiction films such as Star Wars, took about a year to compose.

    “The hardest part was getting all the parts to fit together,” Takata said, “especially for the instruments [Heller and I] don’t play. When it was performed, though, I felt really proud.”

While writing the piece, Heller and Takata consulted band director Steve Schmitz for preparing the final product for the band to perform.

Schmitz said while he gave recommendations for the arrangement of the final piece, the ideas belonged entirely to the students.

“I hope that the fact that students composed this is inspiring to other students,” Schmitz said. “It proves that composing can be done, but it also teaches students more appreciation for each piece, that a composer’s heart and soul goes into every piece.”

Students gained appreciation for collaboration in music with their performance of “Star-Crossed”, a joint Minnesota premiere with local colleges and high schools. In it, students performed a soundtrack to a superhero comic-book-inspired movie reel playing behind them for the audience to watch. In all, 15 groups performed this piece, all under the Minnesota Educational Director’s Association,which included schools such as Edina High School and Augsburg College

Junior Rachel Tollefsrud, who plays flute in the Wind Ensemble, said she enjoyed performing the piece.

“I really liked the challenge,” Tollefsrud said. “With such a big group, it was fun to perform and talk to students from the other schools who were performing it, to iron out details. My favorite character from the short movie was Red Rhapsody because she had really cool powers. Performing with the seniors was kinda sad, since it was our last time together”

The Wind Ensemble had thirteen graduating seniors this year, each of which were featured in a baby photo powerpoint. To fill the seats they leave behind, Schmitz increased efforts to recruit eighth-graders for next school year. The Symphonic band alone has experienced a 34 percent increase in the number of students participating next year.

Schmitz said he hopes the increased numbers will benefit the Symphonic Band, but overall this year was successful.

“Next year, we’ll have even more talent to draw from and grow our musical family,” Schmitz said. “Of course, this performance was bittersweet for the Seniors, and our band will never be quite like that again with them leaving. I’m proud of my students. They did a wonderful job this year and I wish the Seniors the best of luck in their future plans.”