Orchestra Concert Review

By Destiny Young

The Orchestra Winter Concert was on December 7th, 2023. I also played in the concert. The songs we played were “Across the Wind” and “Secret Agent Sugar Plum.” We were told to envision some things for each song. So for “Across the Wind,” we pictured icy plains with cold winds that picked up and slowed down. For “Secret Agent Sugar Plum,” we pictured James Bond wearing a pink tutu doing spy things. The pictures actually helped us a lot to get in the mindset. Talking about the pictures we created, it actually calmed our nerves when Ms.Edwards told the crowd about it. They started laughing about the “Secret Agent Sugar Plum” picture we created.  While practicing and preparing for the concert, we were quite stressed about “Across the Wind.” It’s a three page song with so many different dynamics that we weren’t sure we could play it. However, as time went on and the more we practiced, we had finally been ready to play the entire song with little to no trouble. We had our ups and downs with “Secret Agent Sugar Plum” as well. “Across the Wind” was the first song we played since it was two pages long. While playing “Across the Wind,” the members of the orchestra were slowing down a bit. There were no pauses between any of the pages so we had to play it through completely. I’d say we played pretty well and we even kept up with the dynamics. “Secret Agent Sugar Plum” came afterwards and it was great. Although, since it came after “Across the Wind,” our arms were tired. We pushed through both songs because we wanted our practice to be worth it. After the concert we talked about how we were so nervous, but were definitely proud of ourselves. I’d like to add a shout out to Ms. Edwards for leading us through that concert and believing in us even when we didn’t.