Samo Orchestra sprung into action at their spring concert
Sophie Salem, Staff Writer
The Samo Orchestra spring concert completely blew the doors off of Barnum Hall. From your classic orchestra songs to a tribute to Ukraine through the Ukrainian national anthem, the auditorium echoed with the magical sounds of perfectly tuned strings… and a few trumpets.
With eight separate orchestras, conductors Jim Wang and Jason Aiello conducted their way through the beauty of dozens of classical songs. The concert progressed in order of orchestra level. Each song thoroughly demonstrated the orchestra’s skill level from their techniques to their sound as a whole. Throughout the concert, Wang and Aiello took turns conducting the students with different energy and music choices. For seniors, this was one of their last orchestra concerts in their high school career, so mixed emotions flooded the auditorium. Isabella Miele-Okada (’22) is in symphony orchestra and has various emotions about her last concert.
“I’m overwhelmed with sadness because I’ve had such a great journey with orchestra people. It was a great way to have a last community celebration that we’ve been working so hard on,” Miele-Okada said.
Mr. Wang is coming to the end of his first year at Samohi and is incredibly proud of his orchestra students.
“Mr. Aiello and I are proud of all of our ensembles. Each group out-performed themselves in their own unique ways. One particular thing that stood out is we noticed that the overall level of each group has finally gotten back to pre-pandemic levels, and this was the first concert where we felt like each group truly represented that group’s ability and playing level,” Wang said.
Nearing the end of the school year, Mr. Wang is sad to see the seniors go and feels as though there is a real special connection between the group of seniors at the moment. According to Wang, this is an extremely resilient group of seniors who will absolutely be missed!
At the end of the concert, the symphony orchestra honored those in Ukraine through a short speech and the playing of the Ukrainian national anthem. Throughout the song, yellow and blue lights flashed in the auditorium representing the Ukrainian flag. The audience was in tears and was grateful that Samo recognized such an important issue. The concert program even had an option for families to donate to Ukraine through a Unicef site targeted toward helping Ukrainian children.
This special concert truly made Samo orchestras stand out and it will never be forgotten. Wang and Aiello put together a show to be remembered forever.
Jim Wang conducts Philharmonic Orchestra in “Hide In London Symphony.”