Instrumental Music is a cornerstone of the SMHS VAPA program. Consisting of multiple groups ranging from Jazz Band to Wind Ensemble to Orchestra, the theme of this year’s concert was Video Games. While plans for the initial concert were initially going to plan, they soon ran astray when Music Director Krissa Molina had emergency medical issues that took her out for the rest of the year. Fortunately for the bands, the orchestra’s cello coach, Steven Yen, valiantly volunteered to fill in for Ms. Molina, helping the groups rehearse their big collective pieces in the span of an incredibly short two days.
The concert opened off with numerous small chamber performances. These chamber performances ranged from whole section adaptations of the Halo Theme to trio renditions of “Under the Sea” and “Schindler’s List” by the honor’s string group Tri-M and was capped off with a stellar rendition of jazz standard “A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie. Afterwards, the Jazz Band performed 5 pieces including two vocal scores “Feelin’ good” and “Still Alive” featuring their vocalist Mimi Bernstein, 11. Afterwards, the concert went into intermission. Following the intermission, the orchestra went on stage which was then followed up by the concert band and wind ensemble. “The wind ensemble was definitely the standout performance of the night,” Mason Pucan said. “I thought they had the purest and best sounding playing and they really looked like a well oiled machine in comparison to the other ensembles.”
The finale of the show was a joint performance by all the aforementioned groups as they played an 8 minute long video game medley featuring songs from Super Mario and Megalovania. “Overall, while there were definitely hiccups in the show, I thought it still went a lot better than expected. I’m very proud of how every performer carried themselves and especially grateful to our cello coach, Mr. Yen, for sacrificing his time to ensure that we still had a concert,” Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band member Daphne Ko, 12, said.
