On Tuesday, April 2nd, CdM instrumental music department hosted the annual Zone Concert. This concert was held at Corona del Mar High School’s very own Blackbox Theater.

The purpose of the Zone Concert is the same as any other concert during the year: to showcase the CdM music department’s talent. However, the difference is that the Zone concert doesn’t have only parents in the audience. All students from the elementary school orchestras are invited every year to this concert to watch the high schoolers perform. The elementary students that attend mostly come from Newport Coast Elementary and Eastbluff.This helps excite the younger students about joining the string orchestra once they come to CdM in the upcoming years. Not only that but it also allows them to see how the director, Val Jamora, works with his students and the whole dynamic of the group.

Before the concert even starts, the elementary school students got the opportunity to actually meet the members of the high school orchestra before watching them perform. For an hour, the high school music council set up several team bonding games to play. One of these games included ice-breaker bingo, in which elementary school students were given a paper with boxes on it. Each box had a quality on it. The kids had to find a high school student with that certain quality in order to get that box checked off. The first to get all their boxes checked off won.

When asked about team bonding, Masoon Malki, a 6th grader at Newport Coast Elementary, reported, “It was super fun! I got to meet everybody in the high school orchestra, and I’m definitely going to join next year!”

After everyone got to know each other, it was time for the concert. CdM’s string orchestra performed three total pieces, one of which was the Star Wars theme song, by John Williams.

Once the orchestra had performed their pieces, the elementary students joined them on the stage with their instruments and participated in a short master class with Jamora. In this, students got to experience what it is to be a part of the orchestra and how Jamora teaches.

This Zone Concert was an important experience for not only the string orchestra, but also the elementary students that are interested in joining in the upcoming years, and overall, everyone had a great time!