The music ensembles at RAHS have been working hard for the past two months to put together performances to show off to their families and friends. And over the past couple of weeks, they got to show off their skills during concert weeks.
The two orchestras kicked off the performances last Thursday, November 14. The Concert Orchestra, consisting of ninth, tenth, and eleventh graders, played their set first.
Symphony Orchestra ended the concert, closing with the crowd-pleaser ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King.’ Senior Sofie Sethi said, “It was fun to play such an energizing piece.”
Orchestra teacher Dr. Jannings said, “Performing is super fun, not only as a chance to give the students to show off all the hard work they’ve put in, but for me to perform with them as well [as a conductor].”
Next, the choirs had their performances on Tuesday, November 19. Good ‘Pellas, the extracurricular chamber choir, sang first; Concert Choir, the class of ninth and tenth graders, sang second, and Cantus Certus, the top choir of juniors and seniors sang last. To finish out the show, all the choirs came together to sing an All-Choirs piece.
Regarding her first RAHS choir concert ever, freshman Maddie Pickering said, “It was so fun. My favorite song was definitely ‘Kwela Kwela’ (the All-Choirs piece).” She also said that she would love to continue to do choir as she continues her high school career.
The last concerts of this cycle were the band concerts. There are four bands, so they were split into two concerts- one at 6:30 and one at 8:00.
The 6:30 concert started with the Allegro band- consisting of only freshmen. The audience was filled with parents who had never been to a RAHS band concert before, and the band teacher Mr. Dehnel acknowledged that, saying “I welcome all new families to the RAHS auditorium!” in his speech.
Second playing was the Concert Band, one of the two 10/11 grade bands. They played a variety of music, from classical to Cuban, and ended the show with a bang. (Literally. On a drum.)
The final concert of the night and the cycle was the Varsity and Symphonic Bands.
Varsity (the other 10/11 grade band) started the night off strong, playing four songs. Ellyse Koerber said that she liked the music that was played and “the night was very fun.”
Finally, the Symphonic Band closed out the evening. They played classic band music, slow, sad songs, and upbeat jams. Senior Bjorn Reppe said, “It was a good last first concert, we played pretty good.”
