Music at Overlake
All semester, Overlake’s music groups have worked hard to perfect their songs. This past week was a marvelous showcase of all the pieces the band, orchestra, and choir have put together!
Orchestra Concert:
“It was amazing,” said freshman Mayuri Malladi about the orchestra performance she watched on Wednesday evening. The show itself consisted of performances from all levels of string players. Much of the program consisted of classical music, but one of the highlights was the performance of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Two conductors, Mark Lotz and Andrew Jackson, put together the show.
Concert Band/Jazz Band Concert:
On Friday night, Overlake families and students drove to Fulton to watch the semester performance for the Overlake concert band and jazz band. The concert started with “(Risk) Everything for a Dream” featuring soloist Melissa Lin from concert band. Some crowd favorites included “Highlights from The Lord of the Rings” performed by concert band, and “My Foolish Heart” featuring senior saxophonist Rolf Encarnacion from jazz band. After playing the last song, Santa Baby, senior members of each band presented the two conductors, Steve Mraz and Andy Jackson, with gifts to show their appreciation for an amazing semester of music! Jazz band will be having another performance on the 21st of December.
Choir Concert:
On Saturday, Fulton teemed with members of the concert and chamber choir as well as members of Overlake’s two a capella groups. Impressively, quite a few songs were sung in foreign languages. The concert choir opened up the show with a Kenyan welcoming song, and the chamber choir followed with songs in Hebrew and Serbian. The concert choir also employed the use of multi-colored kazoos in their performance of Good King Kong, an amusing parody of Good King Wenceslas by professor and satirist Peter Schickele. Between numbers from the concert and chamber choirs, the Unaccompanied Minors and Y-Tones performed. Decked out in Santa hats and reindeer antlers, the Unaccompanied Minors sang the beloved Mr. Sandman, and then Team by Lorde. They were followed by the Y-Tones, who sang Brandy by Looking Glass. In a stunning conclusion, the combined concert and chamber choirs sang Silent Night in honor of the song’s 200-year anniversary. The song was performed in English, German, and finally in ASL. At the end of the performance, seniors thanked Erin Gabriel and Andrew Jackson for conducting, as well as Ben Kehrli, Prerit Das, and Andy Carr for providing accompaniment on the violin and the piano.
Thank you to the orchestra, band, and choir for your amazing performances! We’re looking forward to the next ones.
