Winter Orchestra Concert

On Monday, Dec. 11, the Samo Orchestra program hosted its annual winter concert at Barnum Hall. The concert featured Samo's seven fantastic orchestras, performing carefully prepared pieces that they had been working on throughout the semester. "The music was great," Symphony trumpet player Owen Doyle ('19) said. "I had a wonderful time."The event opened with the String Orchestra, who artfully performed a trio of brief period pieces before ceding the stage to the Concert Orchestra. The Concert Orchestra performed two pieces: Joshua Reznicow's "Jubilant Overture" and "Tango D'Amour" by Susan H. Day. These were followed by Sinfonia Orchestra, with a Mozart arrangement and "El Relicario" by Jose Padilla, and Intermezzo Orchestra with Christoph Willibald von Gluck's "Symphony in G Major," Carrie Lane Gruselle's "The Pinery Boy," and Camille Saint-Saens's "Allegro Moderato from Symphony No. 3." The first half of the concert then closed with the Chamber Orchestra (a small group composed of Symphony string players) and their phenomenal rendition of Bela Bartok's "Divertimento for String Orchestra." Symphony Orchestra, the top orchestra at Samo, performed the third and fourth movements of Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 1. The group will be performing all four movements of the symphony on their upcoming tour to Argentina and Paraguay in the spring, along with selections including the Argentinian National Anthem and the William Tell Overture."The Brahms was incredibly good, especially given the fact that we hadn't spent that much time on the third movement," Swenson said."Now we have to learn the other half."After the Brahms, Symphony capped off the evening with a festive performance of "Sleigh Ride," featuring a raffle-appointed guest conductor and percussionists, as well as an attempt at snowfall; white soap bubbles were sprinkled down from high above the seats, but unforeseen clumping somewhat diminished the effect, as large soapy masses, tinged blue by offstage lights, drifted down to the floor."I really enjoyed the soap falling from the ceiling," Symphony trombonist Natalie DiMundo joked.There were initially worries about the loss of rehearsal time on Dec. 5-7. School cancellation due to smoky air set the Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras back 3 hours of full group rehearsal, and every group felt the effects of lost class rehearsal time. Despite these setbacks, the orchestras performed at a high standard of quality at Tuesday's concert."I was amazed at how well it went after having missed three days of school," orchestra director Joni Swenson said. "I was very pleased with every orchestra's performance; everybody really stepped up after missing so much."