Potluck Precedes “Light” Concert

Instrumental music held its first concert of the year, the Pops Concert, on October 5. The concert was preceded by a potluck dinner for musicians and their families.

The potluck started an hour before the concert, at 6 pm. Parent organizer Nikki Brickman explained, “This is a kickoff really for the start of the music year. So it’s nice to get the parents together with the students, and it’s more of a casual atmosphere where we can celebrate getting music started.”

Each family was assigned a different category the potluck, according to Brickman and fellow parent organizer Jennifer Gilmore. “We got a lot of positive feedback about how we set it up this year with the food inside, and people could sit outside. And the weather was really nice, so that really helped,” Brickman said. “Everyone seemed to have a good time.”

Music director Johnny Johnson agreed: “It’s nice to see students from the different groups eat together and be social and the parents get a chance to meet each other. It’s a great way to get incoming people to meet people who have been here for a while longer. Because we’re all a part of the same program now, so it provides an avenue to do that,” he said.

Symphonic band, orchestra, and jazz band performed 3-5 recognizable tunes each. The songs ranged from the “Star Spangled Banner” to part of the soundtrack to Star Wars. Johnson described it as “a lighter type of concert.”

“This concert is really good because it introduces the new members of band and orchestra to the program, and it’s a nice, low stress concert because it’s just fun music that’s just fun and easier to learn and perform in front of an audience,” said senior musician Maya Bulos.

Each group prepared as they would for any other concert. They analyzed the music, rehearsed it, and learned the backstory.

Johnson said each group had an easier time understanding the music because “there’s imagery connected to it that everyone understands.”

“These all had TV themes, movie themes, so it was a bit easier to connect an image to it. Music doesn’t always have that,” Johnson said.

Bulos explained, “We got the music around the second week of school, and we worked on it in full orchestra setting with Mr. Johnson, and we also had a couple days where we split by section, and each section leader worked on specific parts in the pieces that were more challenging to their instruments.”

“They all did well, exceeding my expectations. You never know what you get when you start a school year, and how far you can get in a month,” Johnson said. “All three went farther than I thought when we started, which was delightful.”