Orchestra puts on combined concert
Bowing a section of American Salute composed by Morton Gould, sophomore Morgan Austrich and senior Ashley Cha sit first and second chair Monday, Feb. 11 in the auditorium. Both players have been in Philharmonic since their freshman years.
All of the three different sections of the orchestra combined to perform at a concert on Monday Feb. 11 in the school auditorium.
“This is one of many of the orchestra’s concerts throughout the year,” orchestra director Steven Bossert said. “But what makes this one different is that all three components of the orchestra are coming together.”
The three different sections of the orchestra are the philharmonic, string and concert orchestras. Each orchestra has different students and a different sound and style.
“I love performing at the orchestra concerts, because I can see how my hard work in class is paying off,” sophomore Morgan Austrich said.
Austrich plays the cello for her second year in Plant’s philharmonic orchestra. Most similar to the concert section, the philharmonic orchestra includes string, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
“The concerts let us see the progress we’ve made throughout the year,” freshman Josh Pittman said.
Pittman plays for his first year in the string orchestra. This section of the orchestra plays only string instruments, such as the violin or the bass, while the concert section of the orchestra includes string, percussion, woodwind, brass and keyboard instruments.
“We play music that really shows off our strengths but also challenges us,” philharmonic member junior Eve Larkin said.
All three orchestras came together to put on this concert, mainly for parents in the audience, but it also provided the students with an opportunity to get prepare for their upcoming assessment.
“The highlight of the year for students is the performance assessment,” Bossert said. “They have been basically preparing for this since September.”
In their annual performance assessment, each orchestra has three prepared pieces of music that they will perform in front of three judges at King high school.
“I’m nervous, but we have high expectations for the performance assessment, since Mr. Bossert prepares us so well,” Austrich said.
The second part of the performance assessment is a sight-reading test, where students in the orchestra as a whole will be tested on their ability to read and play a short portion of music on the spot.
“I’m so proud to see how my students have grown over the course of the year, and the concert is a perfect way to showcase that,” Bossert said.
