Samo band kicks off the year with their fall concert
On Nov. 7, the Samo band held their annual fall concert, bringing together the five levels of the band led under directors Kevin McKeown and Terry Sakow. The concert was an impressive showcase of the band’s first few months of practice and only foreshadows the coming performances.
Since the end of Aug., the band musicians had been working hard on perfecting a collection of songs in all four ensembles, ensuring that each piece was perfected. As an ever-changing program and ensemble of musicians, members of the band such as Norah Allhouse (‘25) dedicate the success of the concert and pride in the band to directors Mckeown and Sakow.
“They both hold the band program to high standards, which helped make the performance spectacular,” Allshouse said.
Max Kehoe / The Samohi
Sabine Sines (’26) (left) and Sophia Symmons (’24) (right) perform warm up piece “Choreography”.
Opening the performance was the song “Canterbury Tales” from the original musical by Nevill Coghill. This alluring piece featured mainly wind instruments, and was a playful piece, often resembling the chime of bells. Preceding “Canterbury Tales” was the piece “Denridge Way”, which was a much faster paced and upbeat song. This piece tied nicely into itself, and was a great showcase of the students’ talents. The last song in this set was very whimsical and was originally a piano piece.
Pre-concert, band members began to excitedly anticipate the performance.
“....We look forward to supporting our peers on the stage in each group…. our band program is strong this year and I’m confident that we will be putting out a remarkable show,” Allhouse remarked.
Opening the performance was the song Canterbury Tales. This alluring piece featured mainly wind instruments, and resembled chiming bells at the beginning. After Canterbury Tales came Denridge Way, which was a much faster paced and upbeat song. This piece tied nicely into itself, and was a great showcase of the students’ talents. The last song in this set was very whimsical and was originally a piano piece.
Throughout the performance, the band directors kept cracking jokes, and before intermission Mckeown and Sakow talked about their goals for Samo.
After intermission, they dove into the world of music. Performing in the second half of this was the hardworking wind ensemble. Each piece that they played was carefully selected for different recents. They opened their performance with “Joie De Vivre,” which is a New Orleans’ jazz inspired piece specifically selected by Mckeown. Following “Joie De Vivre” was the song “Engulfed Cathedral”. This song was decided upon just three weeks ago as the middle piece, as it created a smooth transition between the liveliness of Joie De Vivre and the classical closing piece “Give Us This Day”. Band performer Shayna Kadish (’25) notes that this is a more intense piece, and one they may be using for competition next semester.
“We picked Give Us This Day as a challenge piece and one that we will possibly be using for festival (competition) next semester,” Kadish stated.
The Fall Performance was a great way to kickstart the band concerts for the year, and a great way to showcase the students talents. Through the diversity of songs and pieces, the bands were able to entertain the audience, but show off their skills and talents as well.