Final Blog Post :'(

This was a very sad concert for me because it was my last one, but it was a fantastic performance overall. I think we have made a ton of progress as a group, and we had so much fun when we were playing . Our pieces all sounded great, and I think our sound quality/intonation has gotten so much better since the beginning of the year. The musicians in this Orchestra are all very talented and I think  that this particular group works together very well and I hope they stick together. As for the actual concert, I think that we were very well prepared and had a wonderful and fulfilling last concert. American idiot sounded great as our last piece, and the odyssey  was a perfect opening to our concert. The order of the pieces was perfect, and I think that we all stayed together and looked up for the most part. I won't say we could have done better, because we put so much work into this final concert and I am sure that everyone put their best efforts into it. It has been a privilege and an honor to have been a part of this orchestra for the past two years, and I will certainly be looking forward to rejoining hopefully as a member of symphony in my senior year.

Concert Order

I think that for our concert, we need to be sure to make a dramatic and lasting impact on the audience so that we leave a lasting impression for a great deal of time. The pieces that come one after another should definitely be contrasting, such as willy wonks and the river flows in you. Our concert will start with the Odessey, and that is a perfect introduction piece because of its grace and power. The next piece should be the river flows in you, as it is very relaxing and we will already have the audiences undivided attention from our opening piece. After that, we should play willy wonks because it is also very upbeat and differs dramatically from the river flows in you and will perk up the audience right away. After that, we should go straight into the evil eye and the hideous heart, because that piece is also attention grabbing and creepy. It will certainly perk up the audience and hold their attention for the rest of the concert. Our last piece is already decided as American Idiot, and that is perfect to end the concert and also to end our year together, because it showcases how much we have grown as an orchestra together.

MSBOA 2014 Reflection

Festival this year with a new group was really exciting, a lot of fun, and a lot of hark work. I would attribute everybody's individual hard work and our strong team work ethic to our success this year. Festival is always a fantastic experience, and I'm really happy that we did as well as we did. Moving on to our specific pieces, I would say that in my personal opinion, The Faraway Place was my favorite piece to play, even though it did not go as well as during our rehearsals. We had some out of tune notes from all of the sections especially up on the higher strings. Our confidence as we played seemed to waver in various places, but we were able to all come back together for a nice and solid finish. This is a really beautiful piece, and I really like dour interpretation of it, because it flowed very nicely and had a very deep, mellow sound. I would say that our tempo was verging on a little too slow, because some notes started to blur together giving us a slightly muddy sound in some areas. Overall, not our best piece, but not bad at all. Rondo Energico sounded true to its name, as a very vibrant and energetic piece. Our beginning was slightly weak, but as what seems to be a reoccurring theme, our confidence builds throughout the piece leading up to a strong finish. We had an excellent interpretation of this piece, with a very nice clear and sharp sound overall. We had a great dynamic contrast, with the fortissimos ringing out clear and sharp, and distinctly different from the piano sections. From where we started ( and practiced for 63 minutes), our pizzicato was together most of the time and sounded very nice and clear. As always, there are a few things to improve on but overall an excellent performance. Bells was certainly our best piece, as agreed on by most of our class and the judges. We started out very strong, and maintained that strength and aggressiveness throughout the entire piece, leading to a rich tone and clear sound. We fell apart at a couple of parts, but recovered very quickly. This piece had beautiful dynamic contrast, and was very together overall as an ensemble. Overall, we did an excellent job with strong dynamics and rhythm. This performance was very high quality, but could be improved with attention to tone and style throughout the whole orchestra.

Pre-Festival Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oObXAsStnA&feature=youtu.be

This is an excerpt from Bells! (Les Cloches)