Bridgewater-Raritan High School served as the host to the Central Jersey Music Educators’ Association (CJMEA) Orchestra Festival on February 26. The event was hosted in the high school auditorium, welcoming orchestral ensembles from four different schools.
The CJMEA organization is one of the premier youth orchestra organizations in the state, supporting programs that involve high school musicians in a variety of events such as competitions or performances. The orchestra festival is an annual event that is hosted at Bridgewater-Raritan High School on behalf of the CJMEA organization.
This orchestra festival was unique in that it featured two professional music judges, both well-experienced and well-respected in their respective disciplines of music, who judged and scored each of the performing groups. These scores would be combined to provide a final rating to each ensemble of either bronze, silver, or gold.
Performances began promptly at 5:30 p.m. with the first group performing being Bridgewater-Raritan’s very own Concert Orchestra, conducted under orchestra director Ms. Hsiao-Yu Lin Griggs. The Concert Orchestra is composed of string musicians in grades ten through twelve; the ensemble played “Danse Bacchanale” by Camille Saint-Saëns and “Subterranean Dialogues” by Richard Meyer.
Afterwards, the Symphony Orchestra took the stage, alongside the brass, woodwind and percussion musicians they were accompanied by. While Ms. Griggs remained the conductor, the first piece they played was string-only and absent of a conductor: the fifth “Finale” movement of Antonín Dvořák “Serenade for Strings”. Afterwards, the group performed “Danzón No. 2” by Arturo Márquez with the additional instrumentation of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
The next performance was by the East Brunswick High School orchestra. While their ensemble was only made up of string musicians, they still left their mark with their rendition of “Sinfonia No. 8 in D Major” by Felix Mendelssohn. The group played the first and fourth movements, labeled “Adagio e grave/Allegro” and “Allegro Molto” respectively.
Once East Brunswick left the stage, there was a brief intermission that allowed audience members and participating musicians to have refreshments in the cafeteria. The Orchestra Parents’ Association (OPA), a group crucial to many of the orchestra’s programs and activities, sold boba tea, snacks, pizza slices and sandwiches. Students enjoyed a short dinner prior to resuming the night of music.
After the intermission, Metuchen High School entered the stage to perform Edward Elgar’s “Serenade for String Orchestra”. The ensemble selected the first, second and third movements from the piece to perform.
To close out the night, the South Brunswick High School orchestra played the first movement of “Serenade Op. 6” by Josef Suk and the third and fourth movements of “Suite for Strings” composed by John Rutter.
Once all the performances had concluded, the judges finalized their comments, feedback and scores. In yellow envelopes, they submitted their scores to the event’s main coordinator, Mr. Alvin Gopal; he was also the conductor for the East Brunswick orchestra.
Mr. Gopal announced the results, the highlight of which being the silver rating for the Bridgewater-Raritan Concert Orchestra and the gold rating for the Symphony Orchestra. Under the conducting of Ms. Griggs, both orchestras performed quite well and left their mark on the inter-school competition.
Senior Malhar Deoray, a violinist in the Symphony Orchestra, reflected on the event.
“It is through these events, where individual souls gather, that we encourage not simply the sharing of culture and the bonding of musicians, but the growth of our species’ humanity,” he commented.
Mrs. Griggs gave her outlook on how Bridgewater-Raritan’s musicians performed as a whole.
“I am extremely proud of our students in the Symphony and Concert Orchestras. BRHS is the only school to showcase 2 orchestras that consist of all orchestra students from grades 10 through 12. Our music selections are not easy. However, everyone rose to the challenge and performed to exceed my expectations. I am so proud of BRSO and BRCO!” she said.
The orchestra’s next event will be the district-wide Festival of the Arts on March 26. Orchestra groups from the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School and the Eisenhower and Hillside Intermediate Schools will join the high school musicians on that evening in the high school’s Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium.
