Spring Orchestra Concert

Earlier this month, I had my Spring Concert. This is my second year in Camerata Strings. We practice every Saturday morning 9:00-11:30. The conductor is very nice and chooses beautiful pieces for us to play. Everyone practices their part during the week, and she helps us put it together. This time, I auditioned to be in the first violin section and made it. I prepared throughout winter break for the audition. Luckily, once you make it in, you can't get moved down to second violin unless you don't show up to practice. The first violin part was much harder and meant more practice everyday. 

My day started early in the morning because I had to get dressed in a black skirt, white shirt, and shiny black shoes. We had to leave earlier to allow time to park and find the performance hall. At 11:30 we had a dress rehearsal on stage to find our seats and practice our pieces. The conductor gives free viola classes because we don't have enough viola players. A few kids from the first violin section learned the viola and played 2 pieces on the viola and 2 pieces on the violin, so there was a lot of moving back and forth and changing seats. I was a little nervous when I got on stage, but when we finished and the audience clapped, I felt very good about our performance.

 We played 4 pieces:

• Secret Agent 440 by Carrie Lane, 
• Autumn from "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivadi, 
• Best Of Beethoven arranged by John O Reiley. 
• Gauntlet by Doug Sparta,  

We first played a piece call Secret Agent. In certain section of the music, there is a shhh sound that the entire orchestra had to say. I think it was written because the piece is called SECRET agent. In Autumn of the Four Seasons, there were three solo players, one from the first violin, one from the second violin, and one from the cello section. A solo is when only 1 player plays a special  part. The rest of the rest of the orchestra played numerous repetitions of the main melody. Best of Beethoven was three of Beethoven's most famous symphonies put together. The first one was from Beethoven's 5th symphony, the second one was Fur Elise, and the third one was Ode To Joy. John O'Reilly arranged all these melodies into one piece of music. Beethoven is one of my favorite composers and this was therefore my favorite piece. The last piece we played was Gauntlet. It was a fast and energetic song and whenever I heard it I thought of big, loud waves hitting the rocky shoreline.

Here is a video of our performance. I am sitting on the side, in the front this time with the first violin section. Next year, I will audition for symphony orchestra. Symphony is the next step up and includes the wind instruments in the orchestra. I hope you enjoy the performance!



Which song was your favorite and why?

Did you hear the shhh sound in Secret Agent 440?