Sheridan McKnight
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s Orchestra performed at Long Beach Poly High School on Saturday at the annual Southern California School Band and Orchestra Festival.
Costa’s philharmonic, sinfonietta, symphony and chamber groups each performed songs which were judged by expert adjudicators who gave feedback on their performance. The festival began at () and was free to attend.
“We have spent lots of time practicing for this event,” symphony member and sophomore Grace Watkins said. “A couple songs we played were from the winter festival so it was nice to rehearse those songs again.”
Each of the four groups prepared pieces that reflected their skills and levels, according to Orchestra Director Peter Park. The pieces performed at festivals have to meet certain requirements including sound and production quality.
“I think we made great progress on all the pieces that we have practiced, the pieces we performed are based on musical content and technique and most importantly artistic expression,” Park said.
The philharmonic strings played “Celebration” by Bob Mathews, which they also played in Manhattan Beach Unified All District event. They followed that with “Fantasy on Amazing Grace” by Robert Kerr. The sinfonietta preformed “Of Glorious Plumage” by Richard Meyer and “Argent Edge” by Doug Spata.
“This event is one of my favorites because unlike our previous concert, this event is judged. It was nice to hear feedback after our performance in order to improve,” junior Jeffrey Noh said.
The event itself went smoothly according to symphony member Grace Watkins. The auditorium was packed with a lively crowd and each of the four orchestra groups earned a unanimous superior, which is the highest award you can recieve.
“Even though I feel it was not our best performance, I am proud to have made such great music after all of Orchestra’s hard work,” senior Jack Kittay said.
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