Providence Academy’s orchestra played in the Christmas concert on Wednesday, Dec. 9; combining both lower and upper strings.
When the string orchestra prepares for the Christmas concert, they spend three months practicing their music. Some students dread this because the songs start to become old and that takes away some of the joy of playing them. Other become extremely happy playing the music because it gets the orchestra ready for the Christmas season. The students who don’t have a preference because the orchestra doesn’t play traditional Christmas carols, so most of the string players aren’t familiar with the songs.
Although the upper school orchestra spend many months playing Christmas music, they still find one song that they enjoy playing. An orchestral piece called Troika and Joy to the World become a popular favorite. The upper strings have to play with the lower/middle strings during the Christmas concert. Some students enjoy playing with the whole string orchestra because it gives the lower/middle school an experience and from that they can learn what upper school strings sound like. However, others do not like playing with the younger students because of the size of the group.
“It is very easy for the music to fall apart due to people playing too fast or too slow,” said Stamati Morellas ‘16.
Despite their opinions about the lower/middle strings, the whole string orchestra shares one common favorite about the Christmas concert – treats. Many students have said after the concert ends, they rush to the treat table and grab as many as they can.
“My favorite part of the Christmas concert is everyone is in the holiday cheer, and afterwards we celebrate with cookies and the music is really fun,” said Shannon Rajkowski ‘19.
On the day of the concert, the string players feel excited and nervous, but once the concert is over, they become happy that the audience can hear all the hard work the orchestra put into their music.
“During a concert, I have this nervous excitement because performing in front of a crowd can be scary, but also being able to display our hard work is really fun,” said Colette McCarthy ‘17.