Courtesy of Joyce Koh-Fernandez
Freshmen band, orchestra and choir students pose for a photo in front of the War Memorial Opera House.While their peers walked between their Blue Day classes on Sept. 18, 115 freshmen in band, orchestra and choir traveled through the streets of San Francisco, taking their places among the 2,743 seats of Davies Symphony Hall to watch an open rehearsal of the San Francisco Symphony.
Conducted by James Gaffigan, the symphony rehearsed several pieces as students watched from the balconies in the center box, including “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin and “Harlem” by Duke Ellington.
Visiting one of the symphony’s open rehearsals has become an annual fall semester field trip for all freshmen in the music program, and is often one of the first field trips many freshmen take as they enter the school. This year in particular, the trip also serves as a precursor to others the music department will be taking, including one to Sacramento in November for a marching band competition and a two-week-long Japan tour in June for the entire music department.
Open rehearsals, while still featuring well-rehearsed pieces and even soloists, differ from traditional concert-going experiences; ultimately, they are showcases, not only of the musicians and music, but also of the creative processes of the ensemble. Watching a professional group on the level of the San Francisco Symphony rehearse helps drive home many lessons that band directors Jason Shiuan and Michael Boitz try to impart with their students.
“Something as simple as all the professionals having pencils on their stands, every single one of them writing when the conductor says something, that’s something we try to teach in our rehearsal process,” Shiuan said.
The selection of which performance to watch is always a complicated one, driven by many factors such as the music, instrumentation and featured players. As traditional classical music rarely features more “modern” instruments like percussion or saxophones, Shiuan and Boitz often try to find a performance with repertoire that will interest a larger part of the students and inspire in them the lifelong love of music.
Featured soloists are another part of the multifaceted considerations that are taken into account, as they often demonstrate how music is played and practiced at the very highest levels. In previous years, students have watched violinist Ray Chen and cellist Yo Yo Ma perform intricate solos with the symphony. Although there were no featured soloists this year, the repertoire still included well-known works, most notably Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.”
Watching these top musicians helps exemplify the standards every musician should hold, even when practicing. Boitz recalls how at the open rehearsal featuring Ma several years ago, students caught a glimpse of the world-renowned cellist practicing his scales after the rehearsal finished, perfectly modeling how even the best of the best still spend time on their fundamentals.
“I noticed that all the musicians were super proactive and that they were only running one or two reps for every chunk,” freshman saxophonist Lucas Vash-Munoz said, citing the rehearsal as a catalyst for him to be more attentive and prepared during rehearsals.
Beyond music, Shiuan also hopes to drive home the “soft skills” of representing a group like the music program, as he always emphasizes respect, gratefulness and cleanliness wherever the group travels to. For freshmen, their first field trip is particularly important for setting expectations and standards.
“I really learned about the importance of communication and learning from each other in orchestra, which is important because orchestra isn’t an individual project but a group effort,” freshman violinist Yixin Chen said.
