Campolindo hosted its annual Spring Instrumental Concert on April 27. Highlighting Campolindo’s award-winning Orchestra and Symphonic Band, the music groups performed a wide sweep of repertoire ranging from Orchestra performing selections from the Wizard of Oz to Symphonic Band’s renditions of music from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Much preparation went into this lengthy concert, as each group performed numerous pieces ranging in musical style. “The symphonic band has been rehearsing for our concert since January, when we had our band Festival at CMEA,” said senior Calvin Chen. Further, the composition was altered to be even more difficult. Chen stated that “Mr. Souza added a few more songs to the set that were pretty challenging” which made the preparation exceedingly more intensive.

Both groups have section leaders that help to support and assist the rest of the instrument group in preparing for concerts. “Section Leaders were always working with the players in our section to get the techniques down right..and we always provided technical help,” said senior Philip Mun.

Feelings leading up to the concert were a mixture of nerves as well as excited anticipation for the last instrumental concert of the school year. Leading up to the concert was especially bittersweet for the senior instrumentalists, as it is the last Campo concert they will ever perform in.

The concert highlighted a lot of solo performances as well as student compositions. Cello senior instrumentalist Sam Herzig as well as trombone instrumentalist Chen, Concerto Award winner sophomore Grace Liao all had their own feature performances, and Orchestra member freshman Projoto Bhattachrya and AP Music Theory and Band member junior Joshua Larson had their own feature compositions performed by the Orchestra and Symphonic Band.

Overall the concert was a successful way to end the year and illustrate the hard work Campolindo instrumental musicians have put into improving themselves throughout the year. Chen said that
“I think what really matters…is that the concert isn’t everything. It’s not this one culminating experience where everything matters, it’s the steps you took to get to that point are more than half the journey.