Allen High School Sinfonia Orchestra

The “Fall Choral Concert” was held in Pasadena City College, on Friday November 4, 2016 at 8pm. The concert was an hour and half long and was performed in the Westerbeck Recital Hall (CA 140). The performs of this concert were mostly students of Pasadena City College, whom according to their teacher and conductor Mr. Guerrero managed to put an amazing performance in only 6 weeks.

The music concert this review covers is the Plano Symphony’s rendition of the Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in C minor and Symphony No. 9, The Choral, in D minor. The concert was held at a church in April 16, 2016, and it was a sold out performance. Since it was a night simply dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, the symphony titled the concert as “Best of Beethoven.”

Matthew Polenzani is singing a solo and playing the magic flute. The sound of the instrument is like it said “soft and sweet”. It makes the song very outstanding like the title of the opera. The pitches contains some high and low notes that makes a very wide range. The dynamic level is soft and calm, but at the end of the song, the soloist hit a very high note that increases the level. The tempo is very calm, stead speed. The rhythm is duple meter. The melody is very smooth throughout the song giving it more calm tone color. The harmony produces a positive emotions that the actor gives about the magic flute. The set of the scene is very beautiful that give me a feeling of feeling the sound of the flute being sound. I agree that the sound is very sweet and

When the concert first began, the three instrumentalists walked with energy despite their age. The first song, “Sonata I in G-Major Op. 2, Nr. 1” by Michel Blavet, was a Baroque Sonata. There were five movements and was played by the harpsichord, flute, and cello. All movements of the song were polyphonic because of the three instruments that had different parts and equal importance. In the first movement, I noticed that the flute tended to rise in pitch. In the second movement, I noticed that the melodies often repeated. Throughout the rest of the song the tempo changed from fast to slow and the flute would usually take the lead. On the last movement, the cello and the harpsichord

When I was an eighth grader in middle school, I joined IUSD Middle School Honor Orchestra. I played the viola in this orchestra and I was eighth chair violist out of sixteen violists. Many of my friends joined this orchestra and we had a lot of fun. I played different pieces of music with everyone in the orchestra and I learned many new things. Playing music pieces with different people that play different instruments have taught me a lot, and I learned that it is always important to work as a team. Joining this orchestra has given me the better understanding of music and teamwork. After the concert of this orchestra, we had a field trip to California Adventure and I performed there with the group of the first time.This is one of the best experience

The concert performed by the Allen High School Symphony Orchestra, which combines the Chamber and Sinfonia Orchestras, was an amazing concert but was not a flawless one. The pieces all sounded quite wonderful on the outside, but by diving deeper into the music and truly listening to and observing the performance with a sharper eye, there were some problems that appeared in a couple different areas, and those problems came mainly from three distinct areas: tone, technique, and musicianship.

On April 11, 2014 The Florida Orchestra performed Wolfgang Mozart’s Symphony No. 28 in C major, K, 200, David Diamond’s Symphony No. 4, and Johannes Brahms Quartet No.1 for Piano and Strings in G minor at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Ferguson Hall in Tampa, Florida. Gerard Schwarz, guest conductor, led the Florida Orchestra for each of the compositions. According to The Florida Orchestra Program the list of performers for the violin is Jeffrey Multer, Nancy Chang, Jeffrey Smick, Lei Liu, Sarah Shellman, Lucas Guideri, Valerie Adams, Toula Bonie, Saundra Buscemi, Mary Corbett, Linda Gaines, Oleg Geyer, Cynthia Gregg, Linda Hall, Yan Jiang Lu, Evelyn Pupello, Claudia Rantucci, and Virginia Respess. The list of performers for the viola is Ben Markwell, Kathie Aagaard, Karl Bawel, Lewis Brinin, Alan Gordon, Alison Heydt, Kenneth Kwo, Warren Powell, and Barbara Rizzo. The list of performers for the violoncello is James Connors, Lowell Adams, Rebecca Bialosky, Alfred Gratta, Gretchen Langlitz, Laura McKey Smith, and Merrilee Wallbrunn. The list of performers for the bass is Dee Moses, John DiMura, Roger Funk, Alan Glick, James Petrecca, and Deborah Schmidt. The list for performers for the flute is Clay Ellerbroek, Daphne Soellner, and Lewis Sligh. Lewis Sligh was the only piccolo performer. The list of performers for the oboe is Shawn Welk, Lane Lederer, and Jeffrey Stepehenson. Jeffrey Stephenson also performed during the night playing the English

I especially liked, Spring: Overture for Wind Orchestra, because of the rapid and dance-like scene. In addition, I was impressed with the orchestra’s ability to perform so favorably with the brilliant soprano soloist. My least favorite performance of the evening was Danceries. The beginning was enjoyable but it quickly shifted to excessive refrains and distorted structure of instruments. After hearing these independent pieces I was able to comprehend and respect the talent of the performers of Bob Jones University’s music division. Overall, the musicians performed an excellent concert and left a lasting impression on

Overall I actually enjoyed the piece more than I thought I would. It had a nice tempo that allowed listeners to be engaged and even when the volume dropped the violins played a softer texture as if they were inviting you to listen closer and pay more attention. Generally, the theme was also joyful which I took notice of and enjoyed. Lastly, I didn’t notice any musical mistakes, and thought the piece was well played.

During a later part of Scene Two when the cast is dancing the movements match the music, they appeared to be doing the Waltz, so the music had abrupt changes. In Scene Three: Cadiz, the orchestra plays some sad and somber music at the beginning. As the scene progresses the music goes from dark and dismal to happy and cheerful. During one of the songs of Scene Four: Paris the Old Lady, Cunegonde and Candide were discussing a flight and the music being played by the orchestra matched the lyrics bringing the idea of a flight to life. The Old Lady has a mezzo soprano voice she executes all of her notes well in the song. At the end of scene three Candide, Cunegonde, and the Old Lady leave to go to a new place and in the song they sing there are rounds, which were well executed. It helped change the mood again which brightened up the audience.

To emphasize the feeling of celebration and glory in the first movement, “Gloria In Excelsis Deo,” the orchestra began with a phrase consisting of frequent octave leaps followed by several 16th notes that rarely had any rests in between. With the chorus singing together on the same rhythm of half notes and whole notes, there is a fuller tone and grander sound that filled the whole auditorium. At one point when the orchestra played their ritornello with the chorus, and both groups did the crescendo together, it established the forte climax. Even though the orchestra had difficulty staying in tempo with the conductor for some of the 16th notes, the overall emotion is still

The Sartell High School’s bands, choirs, and orchestra had their first concert of the year on October 16, 2017. I will be evaluating the wind ensemble’s performance of their two pieces.

On the 5th of December, I attended my second concert in Cypress Recital Hall. It was an amazing experience. I got to fully appreciate the sounds of the violin and the piano. Erika Salas, played the Violin accompanied by Yoko Mizuno, Doris Wang and Michael Cooper each individually performed a different piece on the piano. The first song was Sonata in D major HWV 371 by George Frideric Handel and performed by Erika Salis and Yoko Mizuno. The structure of this sonata was made up of four movements. Affetuoso feeling, tenderly, Allegro lively, fast, Larghetto slowly, steadily, and Allegro energetic, fast. Each section had a specific form the first movement reminds one of a slow symphony. The Allegro is written in a fugue, polyphonic style. The

Never could I have thought that my first concert experience was going to be in a college class, performed by various composers of classical music. During the concert, I got to listen to four performances. First, the Oxycotton was played by Tim Sanchez. Second, Samantha Post played Acht Stucke on flute, followed by Nicholas Gledhill, playing Blues and Variations for Monk on horn. Finally, the CSU Graduate Brass Quintet performed a piece named Misty. In this essay, I will share my personal experience of the concert and discuss the different elements of music seen in the different performances.

I feel that the fourteen members of chamber orchestra and the two vocalists did an outstanding job. This piece was well put together. I loved the harmony that was brought forth between the orchestra and the vocalists. The two vocalists a tenor known as Paul Groves and a soprano known as Anna Larson, did a beautiful job staying in tune. The way that their voices went back and forth in harmony was just beautiful.