The Bridgewater-Raritan High School string orchestra ensembles’ winter concert was held on December 6 for an audience of parents, family and friends.
A total of four ensembles performed, a culmination of preparation from the beginning of the school year.
Each orchestra is conducted by Mrs. Hsiao-Yu Lin (Sherry) Griggs, BRHS’s orchestra director. Alongside Mrs. Griggs was Ms. Carrie Jendza, the new assistant orchestra director, who helped prepare students during rehearsals and lessons.
Due to reconstruction in the school’s auditorium, the winter concert was held in the main gym as opposed to the usual location of the auditorium. Nonetheless, the orchestras were able to set up all the appropriate equipment for each ensemble.
Before the concert began, each ensemble was assigned a warm-up room to prepare for the performance. The orchestras who performed were as follows, in order of performance: the BR Ninth Orchestra, Piu Vivace, the BR Concert Orchestra, and the BR Symphony Orchestra. Each of the three main ensembles performed four pieces, while Piu Vivace performed one.
The BR Ninth Orchestra played an array of songs from multiple genres. First was “The Odyssey (Journey of Odysseus)” by Soon Hee Newbold; second was “Organ Fugue in G Minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach; third was “A Prayer for Peace from Munich” by John Williams; fourth was “Swamp Thang (Stompin’ the Bayou)” by Richard Meyer. Soloists for this ensemble included Soobin Kim on the violin, Anna Gu on the cello and Natalia Placek on the piano.
Piu Vivace, the high school’s after-school string orchestra, performed “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by G.D. Weiss, H. Peretti and L. Creatore. Ethan Wei played the piano part while Richard Neff was on percussion.
The BR Concert Orchestra chose to perform pieces with various aspects not seen in traditional string orchestra ensembles. The first song was “Waltz No. 2” by Dimitri Shostakovich. Vikram Pedapudi was the solo violist while Nivita Thomas was the solo cellist.
Next, the group played “Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)” by Richard Meyer. Mikayla Abraham was a solo violinist while Jasmeet Singh, JJ Navarro and Jonathan Vijay played percussion. The final two pieces were “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy and “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson where Tia Sharma, Aditi Dhara and Natalie Bryant played percussion instruments.
As a finale, the BR Symphony Orchestra performed the third movement of “Serenade in C major” by Peter Tchaikovsky, the fourth movement of “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor” by Ludwig van Beethoven,” “In the Hall of Mountain King from Peer Gynt. Suite No. 1” by Edvard Grieg and “A Christmas Festival” by Leroy Anderson. All the string sections in the symphony orchestra were joined with woodwind, brass and percussion instruments in certain songs as well.
Pranita Kundu, a sophomore in Concert Orchestra and Piu Vivace, provided insight from a musician’s perspective.
“I enjoyed listening to the pieces that the other orchestras played, especially the symphony orchestra. It was interesting to hear the differences in the pieces that each orchestra prepared,” Kundu said.
Even though the ensembles played in a gymnasium rather than a stage, she said “all of the ensembles played very well.”
The orchestra program at BRHS has more events later this year, including the Fine Arts Festival, a spring concert and a trip to see the Philadelphia Orchestra practice.
To Kundu, seeing the professional orchestra “is a great opportunity to learn how professional musicians rehearse.”
