Music is something that everyone enjoys, especially at this time of year with the holidays approaching.
Cal hosted this year’s Winter Orchestra Concert on Dec. 8. Pieces such as “A Glimpse of Winter”, “A Christmas Festival”, and many more were performed by students in the string and chamber orchestras.
Students from string and chamber orchestras worked hard on perfecting their ability to play these pieces, spending hours rehearsing both in and outside of school.
Senior cellist Sydney Dang said members of the orchestras rehearsed a lot in preparation for the concert.
The string orchestra played “A Glimpse of Winter”, “Finlandia”, and “Allegro Molto” from Mozart’s Symphony No. 1.
“A Glimpse of Winter” started upbeat as each section of violinists contributed to the piece, working as a whole. It also built up, like the music is chasing.
Up next was “Finlandia” by the Finnish composer Sibelius. It’s a piece that starts slowly and quietly and continues with a peaceful melody that could be described as ocean waves.
The last piece the string orchestra performed was “Allegro Molto”, which starts with upbeat notes while progressively becoming louder and faster with soft staccato. The piece altogether makes a nice, classical tone, as intended from composers Mozart and Anthony Granata.
String orchestra teacher Javier Cerna showed his pride in his and the other students’ performance before the final song.
“I’m very proud of all the students here on stage,” Cerna announced to the audience.
Many students also showed respect to their peers and admired the work that’s often put into creating a beautiful piece.
“I like how some of them are hardworking,” junior violinist Caitelyn Huang said after the performance. “They really have a passion for their instrument.”
The flute ensemble, which consists of flutists Juhye Oh and Minseo Kim and pianist Leah Galant, followed the string orchestra.
They performed “The Dance of The Reed Flutes” from the “Nutcracker Suite”. This piece starts rather peaceful and playful, while smoothly transitioning up and down toward a cool melody, and going back to a playful one.
Lastly, the chamber orchestra hit the stage and performed “A Christmas Festival”, “The March of the Kings”, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
“A Christmas Festival” started with the cellos making lower notes, while the violins begin the melody. Throughout the song, the performers continuously went from high to low notes. They also went into a deep transition from the cellos, as the violins kept playing at a higher pitch, making the piece more upbeat and fast rather than peaceful and slow.
This piece also contained melodies from other Christmas songs, such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells”.
“Christmas Festival always sounds impressive,” senior violist Chaeie Kim. “It’s really interesting when we play the same piece from last year because there’s always different interpretations [with] different musicians in the group.”
The second piece the chamber orchestra played was “The March of The Kings”, which starts upbeat, but slowly transitions to a nice and slow melody. Unlike the other pieces, this song used bass, guitars, and drums, giving it a rock-like aspect that flowed nicely.
The finale was “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, which starts with a chilling tune with a melody that almost sounds enchanting. The piece then progresses to the classic Christmas song as a wondrous finish to the end of the concert.
The performers’ techniques were well done. The concert shows the hard work, time, and great effort that the orchestras had put into their performance.