Ensembles prepare for upcoming winter concerts

With the winter concert series closing in at the start of December, the various music ensembles are in the process of preparing their performance pieces. In particular, the band ensembles are struggling against a difficult time crunch, primarily due to the intensity of the marching season that ended in October.

For the entire fall season, the band’s focus has been placed into marching band in preparation for their football game performances and their compact competition schedule. Almost all of their classroom time is needed to practice the music, perfect the technique and to help the large freshman class transition from an eighth-grade level to a ninth-grade level of performance.

“We’re laying down an entire 20-minute show that has to be memorized, which means 20 minutes of choreography and very specific drill movement,” choir and orchestra instructor Andrew Ford said.

Even though the students learned the field show by the first week of October, many modifications must be made throughout the season. After each competition, they were given comments from the judges and video footage of their performance, and they analyzed it with the staff.

By the end of the season, the band members were left with little more than three weeks to put together an entire winter concert, after subtracting the rehearsal time lost during Thanksgiving break. According to band conductor Jason Shiuan, as soon as the band returned from its SoCal Bands of America competition in Los Angeles, the concert music was passed out and they were “off and running.”

On the other hand, choir began working on holiday music after their fall concert on the first week of October. At this point, singers are putting finishing touches on their pieces, adding fun movements, and doing some performance work. On top of that, they are starting to learn music for an additional concert on Dec. 9 with the San Jose Wind Symphony.

Similarly, since the orchestra has been working on winter concert music since mid-October, the luxury of having more time has allowed them to advance further in the rehearsing process.

According to Shiuan, one difficulty that is not only relevant to the music students but also to the rest of the school is the overall stress level. With the end of the semester approaching, finals, college applications and standardized tests  all contribute to difficulties for everyone, including the teachers.

“We’re juggling a lot of things right now,” Shiuan said, “So for us, it’s also a time management issue.”

To facilitate rehearsals, the music teachers encourage students to put in the effort to learn their parts outside of class, so that during rehearsals, they can focus on hearing other instruments’ parts.

“It’s like the idea of actually doing your homework at home, instead of during the five minutes before it gets collected,” Ford explained. “Because then you’re so focused on getting the answers filled in that you aren’t listening to the new instruction that’s happening, or where the class is going. Rehearsal is to make music and hear other people’s parts.”

The Jazz Band, which has accumulated enough members to become a full big band this year, is doing something different than usual for its winter performance. The concert will be featuring alumnus trumpet player Tony Glausi, who is coming down from the University of Oregon with his quintet. The band will be performing music composed by Glausi and is rehearsing a piece that features him as a soloist.

“The holiday concerts for us are always really fun,” Ford said. “You get some holiday stuff, and you get really cool technical pieces like Rocky Point Holiday.”

Written by Ron Nelson, it is a “great, fun piece,” despite presenting lot of challenges to many students, according to Shiuan.

“The music is challenging as always,” sophomore AJ Lee said. “But our directors have been really good about scheduling times for us to rehearse often, so we’ll be comfortable with the music when the concert comes.”

The orchestra is also experimenting with electronic instruments, and is practicing “Christmas Eve Sarajevo” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a kind of rock-pop orchestra piece.

“You just don’t see that normally at a high school orchestra concert; you expect to hear Vivaldi, and Mozart, but we get to have a little fun with really 21st century technology.”

Despite the time crunch, Shiuan is confident in the students’ ability to pull the performance together in time.

“I think the concert will go great, as long as the students continue on their trajectory.” Shiuan said, “It’ll be a really fun concert, and because it’s music that they really enjoy playing, they will perform really well.”