According to sophomore and pit orchestra bassist Sam Sietsema, his favorite part of musicals is the bond formed among the group of people involved.

“When you have a whole ensemble working together it’s not just the cast (but) it’s also the crew, and the pit, and the directors, all the parts working together,” Sietsema said, “I really like the sense of community and companionship.”

Sietsema said being able to participate in the pit orchestra allows him to learn and play with other talented musicians.

“I really like playing my bass and I really like pit music, and being in a pit orchestra is also a great way to practice because it’s working with a group of talented musicians and you all just sit together and play music,” Sietsema said.

Orchestra conductor Miriam Edgar said she participates in choir musicals mostly because of Mr. Myszkowski.

“I’ve done most of the shows,” Edgar said, “John Myszkowski does so much for our music department. It’s a nice way to be able to volunteer my time back.”

According to Edgar, joining the pit orchestra is important because of the opportunities it brings.

“It’s a real life experience,” Edgar said, “It’s really cool to be able to apply your skill, even if you’re classically trained, to something that’s more modern and have that modern music experience.”

Freshman cellist Amara Foner said Edgar was part of the reason she joined the pit orchestra.

“I really love to play the cello and I was inspired by Ms. Edgar because she told me she was going to do it,” Foner said.

According to pit orchestra conductor John Myszkowski, the string instruments were vital to this year’s show.

“For this show it’s a really string heavy orchestration,” Myszkowski said, “There are other (shows) where it’s more wind and brass, but this one had a pretty extensive string section.”

Edgar said the music for pit is very different than the music her students play in orchestra.

“Musical music, first of all, isn’t necessarily written for string instruments. It’s really written generally by vocalists and brass players so there’s a lot of key changes that we don’t normally play on a regular basis,” Edgar said.

Foner said her favorite part of Cinderella was the performances when the actors and the musicians came together.

“The music was great, the actors were on point,” Foner said. “I like performing because it’s the final (step) after preparing.”

According to Myskowski, choir musical’s are important because they give students an opportunity to be in a musical when they otherwise might not have been able to.

“The biggest thing is that I always feel like there’s a lot of kids in the school that can’t commit to the after school, all school plays or musicals,” Myszkowski said. “This one, although it does have some after school commitment, it’s not as lengthy a period of time so there’s some kids that it catches that may have wanted to do it and couldn’t.”

According to Foner, she didn’t anticipate the pit orchestra would sound as good as they did.

“(Cinderella) went better than I expected because at the beginning of the week people were still using scripts, but it turned out great.” Foner said.