Spring Orchestra Concert

Spring+Orchestra+Concert

Kennedy Leehealey, Journalist

On Saturday night, March 11th, the CdM music department performed what is known as the Spring concert. Both the vocal and instrumental programs prepared repertoire for this annual showcase.

Before the concert, all performers had to meet at the CdM theater for the dress rehearsal of the program in the afternoon. After each individual group practiced separately on the trouble areas of their pieces, the two groups came together to rehearse the joint pieces and run through the entire list of planned performances. This entire process of refining took a total of four hours of hard work. After the dress rehearsal was finished and all the students were dismissed, everyone had about an hour and a half to go home and eat dinner before returning to CdM for the actual concert.

The concert began at 7:30 that night and went on for approximately an hour and a half. The first performing group was the Madrigals, which is the most advanced choir group on campus. After they had finished their two songs, a small ensemble performed Mozart’s Oboe Quartet. The small ensemble consisted of four students: Wesley Davis, a senior playing viola; Austin Leehealey, a junior playing violin; Kennedy Leehealey, a freshman playing oboe; and James Leehealey, a 6th grader playing cello. This performance was followed by a five minute intermission. Once the audience had had small break, the program started up again. The string orchestra performed the Motet by Johannes Brahms and then the first movement (Scherzo) of the Moorside Suite by Gustav Holst. When the orchestra played the final note, the choirs all joined the orchestra on stage to perform a short piece by Mozart, and then a long work by Pergolesi.

In an interview after the concert, Lillian Qiao, a freshman and the bass player in the string orchestra, explained, “What made this concert special was that we got to join with the other half of the music program to create something truly remarkable. A lot of other schools wouldn’t have the opportunity to perform such a large work, so we are very lucky that we have enough support from the district and administration to do so.”

Overall, the CdM music department put on a wonderful concert and did an amazing job!