Thousands of people from across Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) filled Hill Auditorium, nearly reaching its 3,500 person capacity this past Thursday, March 6. Everyone was highly anticipating the district’s largest annual orchestra event. It has always been the biggest concert of the year for seventh and eighth graders, as they play in front of the high school symphony orchestras.
This event, known as Orchestra Night, is an annual AAPS Music tradition. With 10 schools performing, Slauson Middle School opened the night, followed by Scarlett and the rest of the middle schools performed after. The high school symphony orchestras always go last.
Orchestra Night is a unique opportunity for students to perform in the widely known Hill Auditorium where famous artists have performed, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Elton John and the Grateful Dead.
For Skyline senior and cellist Nhoa Kim, the most intimidating aspect of Orchestra Night was performing in such a historic place.
“Most of our concerts throughout the year are just at Skyline, so walking on stage and performing is very familiar,” Kim said. “Hill, on the other hand, is a world-renowned stage, and there’s just a different vibe when you’re on that stage, with the gorgeous ceiling and huge balconies and bright lights.”
Kim loved the piece her orchestra played, and liked how as a cellist, she got to play many interesting parts.
“We played the finale from ‘No. 9’ by Dvořák, which is the New World Symphony,” Kim said. “It’s like one of my favorite pieces ever. One of my favorite parts about it is that it feels like all of the string parts are important.”
She said that normally cellos don’t get to “speak out,” but with this piece, they get to play the melody and lead crescendos.
“In a lot of classical pieces, the cello part is more of just like a baseline and it’s just like holding down the fort. But in this piece, there are so many moments where the cello part is important,” Kim said.
Another cello player, Dahlia Heller, is a seventh grader at A2STEAM, and explained her experience combining orchestras and performing with the eighth graders from her school.
“[It’s] very cool,” Heller said. “Obviously they’re a lot better than us, and it’s intimidating and inspiring at the same time.”
While younger students like Heller were practicing to adjust to the concert, Skyline High School Orchestra conductor, Andrea Murray didn’t have her students start preparing the piece for Orchestra Night until January.
“Because we have the VPAA benefit concert in January, and that was four or five pieces of music that we started in November,” Murray said. “And then orchestra night was at the beginning of March, so we probably started at the end of January.”
Murray also spoke about the logistical challenges of Orchestra Night, with there being 10 schools performing.
“The logistics of the concert I think went really well, and the stage transitions and the flow this year was still much improved from years past,” Murray said. “There was some miscommunication with rehearsals, so that was kind of chaotic. But everybody worked it out and worked together, so it ended up being okay.”
After the final performance, the lobby of Hill Auditorium was packed with parents holding flowers, congratulating their children on their performances.
