On Thursday, December 7, The Ayala Performing Arts Department put on their annual winter music concert. The concert was a celebration of the students’ dedication to their instrument and a way for the performing arts department to raise money for future musical opportunities for students.
Students and teachers started organizing and finding music pieces for the concert in August. Band directors Mr. Timothy Trost and Mr. Kyle Martinez then started to prepare students for the performance by going back to fundamentals such as scales and various different exercises. After rehearsing pieces for multiple months, students are able to show off their hard work to family and friends.
“We practice every school day,” Ian Revilla (12) said. “We just rehearse for an hour or two and then sometimes we have after school rehearsals for things like finishing ensemble projects.”
The concert started off with performances from the Concert Band, led by Assistant Band Director Mr. Martinez. The festive spirit was reflected in the multipurpose room (MPR) as the band played “African Bell Carol,” by Robert W. Smith. The holiday spirit continued with their next song “Snowfall,” arranged by C. Bernotas. Concert Band wrapped up their performance with a powerful song, “Storm Warning!” by R. Sheldon.
Wind Ensemble, which was conducted by Mr. Trost, then took the stage, starting with “Christmas Rondo,” written by G. Milford. They then continued with “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” by Arr. R. Nowlin which was met with loud applause and cheers from the audience. The solos delivered by Alisa Villegas (12), Jeremy Tun (10), Preston Hundley (9), Sean Lin (11), Zachary Bilby (9), Rayce Lefever (11), Lorenzo Torres (10), Dominic Lee (11), Justin Csaba (9), and Hannah Jung (12) added depth and complexity to each piece.
Shortly after “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” the Symphonic Band joined the stage with Wind Ensemble where both bands played “On The Horizon” written by Katie O’Hara LaBrie and “Shadow Cove March- A Pirate’s Adventure” arranged by R. Standridge. Both pieces featured Symphonic Band soloists: Emily Bao (10), Ellen Kim (10), Jacob Maehr (9), Ray Wu (9), Julian Navarro (11), Noah Banowetz (10), Lily Schaumann (11), Maximus Villegas (9), and Donovan Grimes (9).
Following Symphonic Band, String Orchestra, led also by Mr. Trost began their performance with “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba (from Solomon),” written by G. F. Handel. Rebecca Moon (12) and Sean Lee (10) performed their breathtaking solos during the piece. Next, String Orchestra played” Concerto in D Major 1. Allegro,” by S. Anderssen. Lastly, to conclude the winter music concert, they played “Concerto Grosso in D Major,” by G. P. Telemann featuring soloists Rebecca Moon (12), Sean Lee (10), Alice Zhu (11), and Angelina Song (12).
All performances were received extremely well by the audience, exciting them for the holiday season.
“A lot of parents were making comments that they like the tunes that we select, that they’re memorable,” Trost said. “You know, a person can go away kind of humming the tunes that we play.”
In addition to the parents being proud of the students’ commitment to the ensembles, the band directors are too.
“I hope that [the students] take away from the concert that their time spent playing an instrument is time well spent,” Martinez said.
As the String Orchestra is leaving to perform at Carnegie Hall next year, audience members were also able to preview the pieces they will be performing in New York.
“They got to play some of their music last night and kind of showcase a little preview of what we what’s to come in the spring,” Trost said.
