Hark! The brass and woodwinds sing! On Dec. 16 at 7pm, the Green Hope band program hosted their winter concert in the school auditorium. The annual winter band concert went just as planned, even working around the two days of school being cancelled, one of the days being the original night of the band concert. With all the festive cheer, the bands played holiday-themed songs like the “Home Alone 2” soundtrack, which included songs like “Somewhere in my Memory.”
The entire band program consists of three different bands, concert, symphonic and wind ensemble. With wind ensemble being the highest level, their tradition every winter concert is to play “Sleigh Ride,” composed by Leroy Anderson. Every year, the wind ensemble pairs with the Davis Drive Middle School band to play the piece, but this year, the collaboration couldn’t happen since the two day cancellation was when the concert was originally scheduled. Though unable to perform with the eighth graders, the wind ensemble powered through with their yearly tradition.
Among the crowd, there were many individuals who came to support their child on the stage or their sibling in the band. The GH Falcon sat down with an aspiring middle school musician, Vadim Chernikova, a sibling who came to support his older sister. He shared how he felt about the concert, and said that the performance that stood out to him the most was “the wind ensemble because when they played, the audience could feel the festive atmosphere and the great music played in general.”
The concert band was the first to play, and set the tone for the concert with a cozy atmosphere. With the concert band consisting of mostly freshmen and sophomores, this was one of their first winter concerts, with many to come. For the freshmen, their first semester in band is closing out and the next semester will include their first high school MPA (Music Performance Assessment), a professional evaluation of school music programs.
The second band to play was the symphonic band, the second highest band in the program. Their pieces included many festively themed songs, as aforementioned, the famous “Home Alone 2” soundtrack was played, arranged by Paul Lavender. The pieces brought a sense of familiarity through the famous movie soundtrack, as many had watched the movie before.
Lastly, the wind ensemble played four vastly different pieces. The wind ensemble mostly consists of seniors, so this concert would be their last winter concert or high school band concert ever as some seniors don’t plan on doing band next semester. This concert was a display of all their hard work and dedication over the past few years.
