Orchestra usually presents an annual Concerto and Aria concert according to director Miriam Edgar, but Edgar said this year a string recital replaced it.

According to Edgar, students typically auditioned for the Concerto and Aria concert, and the soloist was accompanied by the orchestra.

“Normally this time of year, in the past we had a Concerto and Aria concert, which is where students in November audition with a big piece of music that they have been working on,” Edgar said.

According to Edgar, many issues arose with performing another concert two weeks after their POPS Concert, which is a fundraising concert.   

“It is really hard for us when we have to pull kids out of school to have dress rehearsal and because we had our rock concert two weeks ago from our concert tomorrow, I didn’t want to have to pull students out again and they come in again in the evening,” Edgar said. “It’s a lot of work for students, they play for many hours on those days and everyone is feeling very exhausted.”

Junior Katie Steiner said she feels the string recital is not as stressful as the Concerto and Aria concert was.

“It’s a little less stressful because we could do it ourselves and kind of take over our own pieces,” Steiner said  

Edgar said she asked the music department to replace the Concerto and Aria concert with a string recital.

“We decided to try a string recital this year. One of the cool things is that the kids who want to play can play and the kids that don’t want to play don’t have to,” Edgar said. “Instead, they will be giving feedback on an assignment, so that they are engaged in the concert and listening to their peers.”

Junior Jake Dempsey said his participation in the recital includes performing “Hurricane” by Bob

Dylan on the guitar. He choose to play Hurricane with the help of Edgar and his guitar teacher.

“I talked about it with both Edgar and my guitar teacher. We came to the decision of Hurricane because it has a fiddle part, which Edgar could play and it sounds really cool with both of us playing,” Dempsey said.

Edgar said all orchestra members would audition to play in the recital.

“(For) the concerto concert we have had people show up with knowing the first quarter. We definitely had people not be ready by then. So, when we hold auditions, we expect the piece to be 100 percent ready to go,” Edgar said.

Dempsey said he got into the string recital by accidentally running into Edgar.

“(Performing in the string recital) started when Mrs. Edgar ran into me at my guitar lesson and she was like ‘Jake oh my gosh, we got the string recital coming up. It would be great to have somebody playing guitar,’ and I was like ‘alright,’” Dempsey said.

Steiner said she looks forward to performing a solo piece, “Wizard Fantasy”, by Mary Leaf on the piano.

“It’s a good opportunity to display my skills in front of my peers, and I will be able to get feedback from them,” Steiner said.

The String Recital is on March. 9, at 7:00pm in the high school auditorium.