By Delaney Kluth
Staff Writer
Band and Percussion will each take the auditorium stage in their upcoming concerts on May 21 and June 3 respectively.
Percussion’s “Percussion Studio Concert” in May will focus on showcasing their diverse variety of groups while band’s “Pops Concert” will play recognizable, student-friendly tunes like current pop hits and movie soundtrack features.
“The Pops Concert will provide the audience with a new perspective on songs they are already familiar with while the Percussion Concert will demonstrate different types of more traditional music,” junior percussion and band member Matt Padilla said.
The “Percussion Studio Concert” will feature one song per ensemble with concert band playing “A La Samba”, symphonic band playing “Mercury Rising”, and Wind Ensemble playing “Under Currents”. This will be followed by three solos, two comedic pieces, and a marimba trio.
“The concert will be a big deal and I expect it to go well and be a fun for everyone involved.” percussion teacher Jeremy Miller said.
The solos will be performed by senior Maddie Horn, who will play the marimba for the “Rain Dance” by Alice Gomez, senior Matt Kordonsky, who will play the marimba for the piece “Virginia Tate” by Paul Smadbeck, and senior Clayton Carravagio, who will play a hand percussion for “Chatterbox” by Chad Floyd.
“We have never had soloists perform at a percussion concert so it is a great honor to help start off this tradition,” Horn said.
The marimba trio will feature junior Samantha Banchik and sophomores Nick Sievers and Aidan Anderson performing“ Stubernic” by Mark Ford.
“Although the piece is difficult, I think it’s going to turn out really cool and the audience is going to enjoy it,” Banchik said.
The comedic pieces will be performed by the wind ensemble and the percussion studio, which includes all members of the percussion department. Wind ensemble’s piece is called “Ricky Rocket” and the studio’s piece is called “Stinkin’ Garbage”. The comical effect for the “Stinkin’ Garbage” piece will stem from the use of trashcans as instruments.
“The audience can expect two really energetic, new and interesting pieces that will stand out from as different from ordinary concert percussion,” Horn said.
Percussion has been rehearsing during periods 1, 2 and 3 and will have rehearsals every Tuesday until the show.
“The best part about the concert is hearing the collaboration between the different instruments and how each one complements the other,” junior Wind Ensemble member Moorea Henn said.
During band’s “Pops Concert”, concert band will perform first followed by symphonic band. Wind ensemble will play third, then Jazz 1, and finally all the groups will play “Pixar Medley” together. Each individual group will play three to four songs.
“We’ll be playing a lot of popular songs so hopefully we’ll be able capture the original intent of the piece and still be able to add even more,” Band instructor Joel Carlson said.
Pieces that will be performed in the concert include music from Avengers, Star Wars, Shrek 1 and 2, and multiple Pixar movies. There will also be some current pop songs featured, such as “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy.
“To recreate the movie environment, we are going to have projection screens with scenes from the movies,” Carlson said. “Hopefully this will help us capture the original intent of the songs.”
Due to his intended career path as a film composer, Zeoli wrote his own small score that will be conducted during the Pops Concert which is meant to sound like a piece from the soundtrack of the movie Mission Impossible.
“I expect that the wind ensemble will make the segment sound amazing because they are such a talented group,” Zeoli said.
Band recently received the music and part assignments for the concert. The groups started rehearsing and watching scenes from the movies that the songs are from in class several weeks ago.
“My hope is that a lot of the student body shows up to both the band and percussion concert and that we are able to show what we can do,” Miller said.
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