By Alexandra Lopez Petalas, Year 11
The Ecolint Foundation Orchestra, made up of approximately 50 students and teachers from all three campuses, is having their biannual spring concert on March 24th. This concert is one of the Arts Center’s highlights as it is an opportunity to bring the entire Ecolint community together. Every spring and autumn, the orchestra, conducted by the dynamic Mr. Aram gets together to perform an impressive repertoire. In the past they have played pieces like “At Last”, “Africa”, “Crazy In Love”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and a plethora of iconic pieces from a many different genres.
Typically, the Spring concert has a more classical repertoire and at the Autumn concert, the orchestra experiments with a variety of genres, from jazz to rock. What pieces are to be played also depends on the availability of the instruments involved. For example, during the jazz concert where pieces like “Beyond The Sea” were performed, there was a big area of saxophones as saxophones are needed for this genre, however, when the classical repertoire was performed, many noticed that there weren’t any saxophones, but many more violas and cellos. Occasionally, a singer will accompany the orchestra and sometimes the entire Encore singing group will also perform. In the past, Ms. Lynch has sung a captivating “At Last” with the orchestra and other singers such as Rose Graymor and Bartolome Molloy have also accompanied the orchestra.
Each concert is filmed by a professional crew and then the videos are published online and shared to our whole community via the end of week newsletter that is sent to all LGB students and parents every Friday. These concerts “allow motivated student and adult musicians develop their music potential through the performance of a wide variety of symphonic music”. The orchestra is a place for all musicians of the community to express themselves and work together to create beautiful music. Each different section in the orchestra is led by a Music School teacher. Groups of instruments usually meet once a week after school to practice by themselves and perfect the pieces before meeting on the weekends with the whole orchestra during the weekends before the concert.
The Ecolint Foundation Orchestra started off as Unison, which was an annual event that took place in the Arts Center and in which all three campuses would participate in. Unison was conducted by Mr. Aram, and was very similar to the orchestra we have now. With Covid-19, these concerts had to stop and when they started up again in 2022, the Ecolint Foundation Orchestra was made. Musicians from all ages participate in this and it is an excellent way to connect with our community.
The next concert is a great opportunity to check out the orchestra. Pieces like “An American in Paris”, “Bolero”, “Capriol Suite”, and others will be played. Over 10 different instruments and about 55 people will be participating in the upcoming concert and the tickets are free, but you must reserve in advance in order to ensure you have a seat.
