Concertgoers were treated to an inspiring evening in the Wheatley Auditorium. Intermediate Chorus, Chorale and Honors String Ensemble were performed under the direction of Angela Luftig, Symphonic Orchestra was led by Stan Orlovsky and Symphonic Band was conducted by Peggy Ho.
Inspiration was the theme for pieces selected for Chorale, Symphonic Orchestra and Symphonic Band. The talented musicians in these classes completed research projects, regarding the historical perspective, composer, arts and music of the time period, compared and contrasted performances of the pieces—and created websites with the information they culled.
The show opened with the Intermediate Chorus of eighth graders performing “Dream a Dream,” Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies’ message of hope and love, and “Once Upon a December” from Anastasia.
Chorale, comprised of ninth through 12th graders, sang the patriotic folk song “This is My Country;” “Who Paints the Night,” inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night; “Jabberwocky,” composed by Carolyn Jennings with lyrics from Lewis Carroll’s poem and “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” composed by David L. Brunner and inspired by William Butler Yeats’s poem.
Intermediate Chorus returned to the stage to sing “We Are the World” with the more seasoned Chorale group. Together, they performed a powerful rendition of the Lionel Ritchie/Michael Jackson 1985 hit, which raised funds for Africa famine relief.
Honors String Ensemble opened with “Bacchanale,” the interlude from Saint-Saen’s famous opera Samson and Delilah; followed by two contrasting movements from “Lady Radnor’s Suite,” the Prelude and the Slow Minuet, and concluded with “Sleigh Ride,” which according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), was the “only holiday song written originally as a an instrumental piece for a symphony orchestra.”
Symphonic Orchestra began with the exhilarating and terrifying “Wilds Gallop,” which depicts someone riding a horse bareback as fast as it can go; then performed the hauntingly beautiful second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, “Cantabile,” which according to the program, expresses “‘ultimate victory through strife’ and was very popular during World War II.” The Symphonic Orchestra’s final number was a medley from Wicked, including “No One Mourns The Wicked,” “Dancing Through Life” “Defying Gravity” and “For Good.” Interestingly, Wheatley grad Winnie Holzman wrote the book, Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, for the smash stage musical and Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics.
The Symphonic Band opened with “Finlandia,” one of the most important national songs in Finland. Next, they performed “Variations on a Korean Folksong,” inspired by the Korean song “Arirang” and composed by John Barnes Chance by memory after returning home from serving in the U.S. Army Band during the Korean War.
A fitting conclusion to the winter concert on this cold Tuesday night was the Symphonic Band’s medley from the Disney hit Frozen, which they performed to the video that students Arihant Jain, Andrew Jin, David Rosenzweig and Andrew Zuckerman created.
