Last weekend’s orchestra concert on March 5 and 6 in Markel Auditorium featured aria competition winners and film music.
The program, “A Tribute to the Film Composer – Music from the Big Screen,” included songs from “Star Wars,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Lord of the Rings,” and “The Pirates of the Caribbean.”
The 2022 aria and concerto competition winners, junior Marie-Therese Romanos, senior April Smith, and junior Paul Trainor also performed in the show. Sophomore french horn player, Caleb Wiegert, said he enjoyed Smith’s performance of “Una Voce Poco Fa.”
“When she says ‘ma’ and the tone completely changes, the song makes you want to dance,” said Wiegert. “The audience laughed a lot at that part, especially on Saturday.”
A string octet played Patrick Doyle’s La Valse de l’Amour during the intermission while the orchestra remained on stage to watch the chamber ensemble.
Sophomore violist Annie Brooks played during John Williams’ “Cantina Band” as a part of a viola septet during the intermission. A student arranged the piece, she said.
“I very much liked having people play during the intermission,” Wiegert said. “I enjoyed ‘Cantina Band,’ and it was really cool to hear pieces that were student-arranged.”
“If you don’t know what this piece is, then you’re not in the know,” junior Ethan Tong said. “Turn to someone who is near you and ask.”
The second half of the concert consisted of movie scores. The orchestra opened with John Williams’s “Tribute to the Film Composer,” which includes 23 songs in just over four minutes, including “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic,” and the main theme from “Psycho.”
“When I first heard that the theme was movie music, I was skeptical,” Brooks said. “But the orchestra did a good job of making the music sound impressive, and it was a fantastic atmosphere.”
Holleman added Strauss’s “Fanfare” from “Also Sprach Zarathustra” to the beginning of the song.
“It was in the same key as the tribute, and the piece was originally a classical piece that has been used in scores as opposed to the other way around,” Wiegert said. “The ‘Star Wars’ piece was fun because we rested for five bars, and then came in on a B flat, which is how it is in the original Star Wars. ”
Sophomore percussionist Josh Camp enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean Suite.
“The percussion part was really interesting,” Camp said. “It’s an iconic piece so everybody put in a lot of time and effort to make it sound really good.”
The suite also included some unique instruments, including a tam tam, and a bundle of sticks that students dropped on a conga to recreate an African-style drum.
“I certainly enjoyed performing in Markel more because there wasn’t as much of an echo and I could hear what was going on better in the other sections,” Wiegert said. “And the sound actually stopped when I stopped playing, which was helpful. It was also easier to have good articulation.”
“I played a lot more of the melodies in this concert,” Wiegert said. “That was much more enjoyable than a few little licks here and there throughout pieces, which is what I usually get when we play classical music.”
