By Angelina Tang
On March 9th and March 10th, East’s band and orchestra had their annual side-by-side concert with the 7th and 8th graders from Transit Middle School. The shows were a resounding success and hopefully inspired some of our future students to keep pursuing music.
On March 9th, the TMS Concert Band, WEHS Concert Band, and WEHS Wind Ensemble performed together. First, the Transit Concert Band, directed by Mr. Schreiber, played The Best of the Beatles arranged by John Moss. Right after that, it was the East bands’ time to shine.
The WEHS Concert Band was first, as directed by Mr. Lanighan and Mr. McCluskey while being led and tuned by ensemble president Kennedy Intihar. They played Shenandoah by Frank Ticheli. Next on the program was the WEHS Wind Ensemble, also directed by Mr. Lanighan. They are led by president Josh Daniels and tuned by Annelyse Wilson. The ensemble played Joropo by Johan de Meij and Incantation and Dance by Chance. The finale of the night was the much anticipated side-by-side, where the WEHS and Transit Concert Bands played Groovee! by Richard Saucedo, while the Wind Ensembles played Rossini’s William Tell together.
The pieces the WEHS Wind Ensemble performed will be played again at the district music festival nearing the end of March! In addition, Johann de Meij–who wrote Joropo–will be making an appearance as a guest composer there. Please look forward to and attend the festival if you’re interested!
On March 10th, the Transit 7/8 Orchestra, WEHS Philharmonic Orchestra, and WEHS Symphonic Orchestra performed together. Before the show started, two Symphonic quartets played prelude music, with Angelina Tang, Emma Wu, Sam Lee, and Li Tang playing Mozart’s Quartet #4 in C Major, and Reilin Lyu, Isabella Gu, Sophie Wang, and Eileen Wang playing Mendelssohn’s String Quartet #1 in E-flat Major.
First on the program was Transit’s seventh and eighth grade orchestra, directed by Mr. Chazen and led by concertmaster Muling Lu. They played Wood Splitter Fanfare by Balmages and Themes from New World Symphony by Dvorak. Following them was a quartet interlude, featuring Yoongyu Heo, Simon Li, Julian King, and Arjun Pindiprolu playing Haydn’s String Quartet, The Bird.
Next up was the WEHS Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Mrs. Ieda and led by Leo Yang as concertmaster. They played the Kingdom Dance from Tangled by Menken, Fiddle Dance by Fletcher, and Finale from Symphony no. 2 in C Major by Tchaikovsky. Members from the Concert Band and Wind Ensemble joined them as well for a full orchestral performance. Finishing off their performance was the second quartet interlude of the night, with Eric Yang, Kate Zu, Katia Ambarchian, and Danielle Guo performing Shine You No More by Sørensen.
Finally, the WEHS Symphonic Orchestra was up, also directed by Mrs. Ieda and led by Yoongyu Heo as concertmaster. They played Adagio for Strings by Barber, followed by Symphonie Espagnole by Lalo. The solo was performed by none other than the lovely Kate Zu, senior and current Symphonic president. Congratulations once more to her for an amazing performance!
Finishing off the Symphonic performance was Overture to Semiramade by Rossini, featuring a gorgeous horn solo section. Members of the band accompanied both the Lalo and Rossini pieces. Rounding out the finale of the show was the side-by-side, in which all of the members of all three orchestras played Conquistador! by Deborah Baker Monday.
Once again, congratulations to everyone involved in the performances! Everyone played very well, and we look forward to Legends of Jazz and the June performance. Additionally, thank you to Lucy, Kennedy, Brennan, Leah, and Maler for helping with details about the band concert in this article!
