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During their performance, Cody Hansen, Alexis Robles Eklod and Annick Fredrich play variations of songs composed by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. Photo by Elias Whitehead

As friends and family members of string orchestra and choir file into the theater room, members from the both groups anticipate audience reactions to their prepared performances to come. Hosting the annual spring music concert May 9, orchestra and choir performed a variety of songs ranging from classical pieces to iconic Disney medleys. students were led in constant practice with a higher focus on the visuals and cohesiveness of each performance. For instance, unlike most other choir performances, this event was almost entirely student-led. A large amount of agency was given to members of the choir in picking out props, costumes and set design all for the purposes in enhancing the overall performance.

“We tried to pick things that everyone could afford or already had, and also borrowed a lot of things from theatre department,” Angelica Dianala said.

In order to incorporate fun elements to each of their songs, students pitched ideas that would help make their performance lively. Dianala took charge of this process by creating documents and spreadsheets that allowed students to communicate what was best for them, what was going to be performed, The students involved eventually decided on pieces consisting of music from popular Disney movies such as, “Under the Sea,” from the film “The Little Mermaid.” It also included Broadway numbers such as, “The King of New York” from the musical “Newsies.”

“All of the sudden it was, ‘Could we block some things in?’ ‘Could we do some costuming?’ ‘Could we do this?’ And I was just like, ‘we’re running out of time guys.’ And they put all of this together. They are the ones that came up with all of the ideas, I just let them run with it,” Mr. Kris Harper said.

On both sides in choir and in orchestra, this was the last concert seniors would perform in their high school career, with senior checkout day being 17 days from the concert date on May 26. As a result, even with AP testing and sports games intersecting with the event, students focused on a display of the importance of dedication to the art. Something that Harper even publicly commended the groups for displaying.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to practice beforehand because a lot of people were absent for AP testing, but we managed,” Adrian Deveza said.

The string orchestra began the concert with the piece, “Sleeping Beauty” from the titular Sleeping Beauty ballet. The following performances consisted of “Symphony No. 25,” “Symphony No. 3,” “Capriccio Espagnol” and “Voices in the Shadows.” Halfway through the performance, Harper announced the seniors who would be graduating, this concert being their last. 

Later on in the concert, Harper announced the senior who earned the Brian Harper Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship was created in 2018 due to the unexpected loss of his son Brian Harper. The idea behind the scholarship was to give someone in the music department with the same spirit of Brian the ability to carry out his legacy.

“The biggest criteria is that Brian had a huge heart, he loved everybody, he had no enemies, he was the person who always got groups together to go to the movies and it didn’t matter who you were, it didn’t matter what color you were, it didn’t matter what sexual orientation you were, if you wanted to go you were invited to go and that’s just the way he was,” Harper said.

After receiving six applicants from students in the music department, the highest number of applicants the department had ever had, Mr. Harper announced Trina Tang as the senior who would best be able to carry out Brian’s legacy.

Tang said, “I felt extremely honored to be chosen to receive such a meaningful award honoring Brian Harper and his legacy, and very grateful to the Harper family for offering the scholarship to support both music and inclusivity, both of which mean a lot to me.”

by ELIAS WHITEHEAD, GIANNA GERADILA & NICOLLE VALITE