October 18th was the College of the Sequoias (COS) Orchestra Festival, where many different high schools performed. One of the orchestras that performed was our very own University Preparatory High School (UPHS) symphony! The festival had three professional musicians adjudicating the event. There were no scores given, only critiques and compliments. Feedback was recorded by the judges as the different orchestras performed. The event was hosted all day long, starting in the early morning around 7. UPHS had call time at 12:45 in the afternoon, allowing the symphony to perform right after the event’s lunch break. Because it was after lunchtime, UPHS was able to rehearse and tune on the stage, getting a feel for the atmosphere and how the sounds echoed throughout the theater before the performance started. 

UPHS’s orchestra has been preparing for the event since the beginning of school, putting in hard work and long hours of practice to perfect the music. While the young musicians were filled with nerves, they put on their best concert faces and played the music wonderfully. The three pieces played were in this order: “Slavonic Legend” by Elliot Del Borgo, “Symphony No.1” written by Gustav Maller and arranged by Richard Meyer, and finally, to end the performance, “Farandole” written by George Bizet, arranged by Merle Isaac. All three pieces were played with great confidence and precision, and to any listener, it was clear that the songs were practiced extensively. UPHS’s one and only music teacher, Jeff Fritz stated, “I think for how young our ensemble is and how little time we had to put this together, they did extremely well. I’m really happy that we have plenty of things to work on, that we were able to stay together and produce a really good result.” Mr. Fritz is an advanced musician and directed his students amazingly during the festival, his words displaying how proud he is of our school’s symphony. 

After the performance, the students of the symphony observed one other school as a requirement. The other school had a significantly greater amount of students playing, though they were not a full symphony, only an orchestra, which is what makes UPHS stand out above the other schools. However, the school observed was no less talented, they also performed beautifully. Mr. Fritz, who also viewed the orchestra, found that while UPHS’s symphony is smaller, there were still similarities between the two ensembles, “They were about the same level as us, the only difference is that they had only strings and about three times as many players in that area, they had really big sound but it was no more advanced than us.” The festival concluded to be a huge success for UPHS and the symphony will continue to go to more events this year. The next big event for the school symphony is the CMEA Orchestra Festival in March, where once again they will perform for judicators, this time there will be scores given out. Support the symphony and hope that they receive a superior rating, the highest one!

The performance went wonderfully for the UPHS symphony, and it was a fantastic opportunity for the students to showcase the dedication and hard work that went into perfecting their performance.