The Aliso Niguel High School’s orchestra and concert band recently held their much-anticipated annual area concert on Friday, March 1. The concert was a musical arranged performance that brought together young musicians from following feeder elementary and middle schools into Aliso Niguel.
The event was an amazing showcase of progressing talent from the beginning to the end of year and a celebration of the following school’s musical journey from elementary, middle to high school talent.
Jonathan Chen, Aliso’s orchestra director, explained, “The Aliso Niguel area concert is our annual concert where the elementary string programs from our Aliso Niguel combine with our middle schools areas and our high school orchestra. This is the same for the band area concert. It is a great opportunity for students to see where they could be in the next few years and the student growth from elementary to middle and high school is astounding.”
The concert featured a wide array of schools, including Marian Bergeson, Canyon Vista, Don Juan Avila, Laguna Niguel, Moulton, Oak Grove and Wood Canyon at the elementary level. The middle schools in attendance were Don Juan Avila and Aliso Viejo Middle School. All of the schools mentioned combined with the Aliso’s own orchestra.
The highlight of the evening was the debut of ANHS’ first electric string ensemble, Luminous, which performed “Palladio” by Karl Jenkins and “Shallow” by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. The high school orchestra captivated the audience with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Soundtrack Highlights,” featuring iconic pieces, such as “Rey’s theme,” “March of the resistance,” “The Jedi Steps” and “Finale.” by John Williams, arranged by James Kazik.
Chen says, “Even though this is only my second year at Aliso Niguel, I always look forward to this concert. It’s very rare for us to gather the entire string program together in one place and it’s inspirational for the younger students to see where they can be when they are in high school. It is also nostalgic for our high school students to see and listen to the elementary and middle school students and their previous music teachers and directors. It’s not easy performing with over 100 orchestra students, but it is an amazing feeling when we finally put everything together after months of practicing.”
Nick Wager (12), a student in the concert band programs, says that “performing is always fun, and it’s cool seeing the progression of students from the 5th grade to high school level musicians.”
The ANHS concert band performed an arrangement of songs from Aladdin and ended the concert with the song “Louie, Louie,” a tradition shared with the rest of the bands where they all play together in unison.
Eli Leibovitz (12), a student that attended the concert, says “Yeah, the concert was cool, I play guitar, so seeing all the schools play was sick.”
The Area Concert is not only an opportunity for all of the schools to play together, but also a chance to show off the hard work that all of the students and directors put together to come to this concert and perform.
