Elite members of orchestra perform with Santa Clara Chorale

A select group of orchestra members performed with the Santa Clara Chorale at Mission Santa Clara, which is on the Santa Clara campus, on Oct. 19.

The group, which was made of students from Saratoga Strings, the most advanced string orchestra on campus, was chosen on a volunteer basis. According to music department chair Michael Boitz, there were no auditions because all the performers were qualified enough.  

“All [the performers] are already at an all-state level,” Boitz said. “I think they’re very well-qualified and they represent [Saratoga High] well.”

West Valley College music department chair Lou de la Rosa acted as a guest conductor of the combined Saratoga orchestra and the Santa Clara Chorale. They played five movements of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “In Windsor Forest.”

The Santa Clara Chorale is a semi-professional group, which means that only some of their members are professionals. The rest of the group either are not paid or have other part-time jobs.

Boitz thought that collaborating with the Santa Clara Chorale was a great experience.

“It’s a great and uncommon opportunity to play with a semi-professional group,” Boitz said. “Not a lot of [high school] groups have this opportunity.”

Sophomore cellist Kevin Lian agreed.

“We were combined with a choir, which was new for us,” Lian said. “[The Santa Clara Chorale was] made of college students and professional adults, and they sang really musically. I felt we were more of a single group rather than a choir and an orchestra.”

The performers were seniors Justin Chiang, Brian Kim, Christopher Lee, Nole Lin and Michelle Won and juniors  Byron Fan and Gloria Liou, who all play violin. Additionally, senior Derek Chao,  junior Elise Mun and sophomore Linus Lu played viola; junior Alexandre Nguyen and sophomore Kevin Lian played cello; and bassists senior Chad Nachiappan and junior Arianna Wright also performed.

Overall, performers said that it was a fun and novel experience.

“It felt like we were supporting [the choir], not merely playing with them,” Lian said. “It was very different from what we usually do, and it was really fun.”