This Tuesday, I was lucky enough to spend my evening at the Hingham High School Winter Orchestra concert. People settled into their seats as the string players, all dressed in formal black attire, began to shuffle from the sides to their respective seats. Then, Mrs. Sassano, the musical director and conductor, gave her opening speech introducing the concert, thanking everyone involved, and affirming how proud she was of the kids for their hard work.
She continues, stating that the concert, despite my and many others’ beliefs, was not a holiday concert. “This event has no holiday songs or sentiments,” she affirms. Instead, “The event includes many dynamic pieces from different musical eras.”
Following this, the first song, Doves’s Vagary (Atwell 1949) was played. The second song Bagatelle Op. 47, No.5 by Dvorak, as Mrs. Sassano explains before they begin, was full of melody and impressive solos. After these full assembly performances, Sassano describes how she is changing things up. The entire group stands up and walks off the stage to their assigned seats in the audience. “We are now going to split into chambers,” Sassano says as Zakary Robbins, Megan Buckley, Tommy Parker, Brian Buonagirio, and Jacob Bennion stand up and walk back onto the stage.
Chambers, she points out, are a smaller group of orchestra students and each group includes a relatively equal amount of every instrument in each group. This group, I observed had two violins, two violas, and one cello. After adjusting their seats and tuning their instruments they started to play Mourning, a piece by Edvard Grieg. To my surprise, I recognized the song, and I recommend anyone with a spare moment to give it a listen, it is a beautiful piece. After finishing, this same process was repeated. The group walked back into the audience and was replaced with a new group.
This chamber was set to play two songs, The Death of Ase and Anitra’s Dance. The chamber group included Tala Sanford, Mark Sommers, Jacob Lewack, James Zandbergen, and Sasha Coleman. The first song was very slow and rhythmic while the second song was much more exciting in nature. Additionally, to Sassano’s amusement, included a triangle in addition to the string instruments in the piece. However, it sadly only included one note from the triangle.
The final chamber group, consisting of Nina Murphy, Katie Teague, Taylor Saitow, Josh Bradshaw, and Charlie Peak, finally took their places. The song they played was called Drifen and was also composed by Atwell.
After they were done Mrs. Sassano again stated how proud she was of the chamber members and she understood the difficulties of performing in such a small group. She affirms that this concert was a true, “Testament of the musicianship and professionalism of these kids”.
The last two performances of the night were done by the entire assembly. The first song, Allegro Barbaro, was a very challenging piece with a large mixture of rhythm and constant switch of parts. The second was a more familiar song, Running Up That Hill. Although originally sung by Kate Bush in 1958, the song has had some modern fame after being included in season 4 of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. This seemed to be the most popular song of the night by both audience members and performers alike.
Taylor Saitow, a junior violinist and chamber member, states that it was her favorite song. “It was fun to play, and surprisingly one of the easier ones,” Taylor said after the show.
Overall the Winter Orchestra Concert was a success, and everyone did an amazing job.
