Green lights tinted the stage on St. Patrick’s day as players and singers readied themselves for the End of The Winter band concert and March choir concert. Vocalists and musicians had been practicing for months and now it was time to show off all the hard work they put into the music to their friends and family.

Band teachers Mike Legvold and Joel Bryan decided to add to the St. Patricks day theme by changing the last names of the students on the script, putting the prefixes ¨O¨ or ¨Mc¨ in front of student names to give the program an Irish twist.  Kicking off the band concert the sixth graders played two tunes: ¨Air and Alleluia¨ followed by

¨Morpheus¨ which showed the audience how much the students had improved as musicians during the year.  Throughout the concert four steel drum bands of varying age groups played a mix of upbeat and slow tunes. Conductor Bryan praised the bands by saying that ¨The students were well prepared and really pulled off an effective performance.¨ In the high school steel drum band ¨Pots and Pans¨ Senior Abe Anderson arranged the song they played entitled¨Fool In the Rain¨ adding even more depth to an already fantastic performance.

A shining moment of the performance was the high school jazz band playing a song entitled ¨Aim High¨ which featured multiple soloists, all improvising their notes. The concert came to a close with the high school band playing a couple pieces. Starting with ¨Sarabande and Polka¨ Legvold animatedly conducted, while in the next piece, ¨The Anguish of Nosferatu, Bryan enhanced the creepier aspect of the song. The music is part of the soundtrack to an old German silent vampire movie which gives it character. Bryan explained that ¨Nosferatu was challenging. Since I’ve been here we’ve never taken a piece with so much mixed meter.¨

Mixed meter is  when a variety of different time signatures are in a piece.  Applause greeted the completion of each song and students left feeling satisfied they had pulled off a great performance. Clarinetist Brooke Hogan expressed her feelings by saying,¨I thought the band concert went extremely well and that it was a great showcase for all the hard work the band put into the music…¨

Leaving the same impression on the audience a week prior, the March choir concert was superb. Choir teacher Sue Franke was gone for much of January but she refused to let that impact the performance.  ¨I wasn’t there for the whole learning process this quarter and it does make a difference, she says, but goes on to say that   ¨Anne Anderson did an incredible job filling in.¨

Choosing a wide array of tunes, Franke ensured that every choir gave a unique sound to the concert.  Jazz choir started off the show singing catchy songs sure to have had the audience tapping their feet. Afterwards, 9th grade and 7-8th grade choir each enthusiastically sang four songs. As Franke explained, ¨The highlight for me is when the students really get into what they are singing and it shows on their faces.¨

When Concert choir entered the stage they launched into a German piece called ¨Lebenslust¨, which was followed by two other songs. One was Tres Cantos Nativos Dos Indios Krao, which 8th grader Graham Pearson exclaimed was his favorite.  It elicited the feeling of being in a rainforest when students shook shakers turned rain sticks, and added bird calls  Ending the night, the sixth graders left the audience with upbeat tunes dancing around in their heads.