Sitka High Musicians In Tune for Concert

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Created on Tuesday, 10 December 2024 15:38

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The audience at Sitka High School’s winter music concert can expect a mix of “high energy,” “ethereal” and “emotional” pieces in Wednesday’s one-hour program, students told the Sentinel this morning.
    The free public concert is at 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center. It features small ensembles, concert, choir, jazz band and symphonic band.

Sitka High School musicians rehearse this morning for Wednesday’s concert at the Performing Arts Center. The audience can look forward to tunes that celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    “It’s a variety – some of it holiday themed, some of it not,” said Andrew Hames, SHS music director. The audience should enjoy seeing the musicians’ development and progress after four months of working together, he said.
    “I feel their sense of ensemble is really coming together, listening to one another, hopefully having a good balance throughout the band,” Hames said.
    The band is short on “lower voices” with no tubas, requiring the baritone and baritone sax fill in, he said. “So the students are using their ears to figure out where the lows are, how they fit in as the higher instruments, that they’re balanced, that it’s not one section of the band outweighing the other,” Hames said. “The other parts of the band, I think their sense of intonation - they’re playing really well together.”
    The piece “Echoes from a Russian Cathedral” was written to be played in a cathedral, requiring the students to “be responsible for how the sound would carry through a resonant space. “As beautiful as the PAC is, it doesn’t work like a cathedral,” Hames said.
    Students are working hard through breath management and control to carry the sound through a sequence before handing the piece off to the next section to carry the music forward.
    The audience can also look forward to tunes that celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, including the “Dreidel Song,” “Jingle Bells” and “Good King Wenceslas.” “It’s just a nice mix,” Hames said.
    The choir is taking a big step forward at this concert by singing without piano accompaniment, he said.
    “Having a piano play with you provides great structure and is a safe harbor for singers,” he said. “When you take that away and put it all on the singers ... I just have so much faith in them that they’re at this point, that they’re ready for it.”
    Hames and the kids who spoke to the Sentinel cited “Betelehemu” and “Patapan” as other choir highlights, with the latter featuring a percussive style, imitating drum beats.
    The Jazz Band will showcase a variety of styles in pieces they’ve been working on, including the B flat blues piece, which let students shine in solos and improvising.
    The group also plays a Latin groove tune and a Charlie Parker number, “Scrapple from the Apple,” which is more up tempo, bordering on a bebop blues tune. Justin Hames and James Nellis will take solos. Percussionist Jude Gluth will take a solo on “Nice and Easy.”
    Senior Lily Mayo, an alto who will be performing in her first SHS winter concert, thinks the audience will especially appreciate “Patapan.”
    “It’s one of my favorites and it’s so - like - euphoric,” she said. “It makes me happy.” The second verse is where the choir really comes together, she said.
    “I’ve never done choir before, so it’s all really new to me so I’m super excited, I’m excited to get to perform and I’m telling my whole family to come and watch me,” Mayo said. “It’ll be fun.”
    Sophomore Jaden Newman, a member of the alto section, echoed Mayo’s comments about “Patpan” as a highlight, along with “Betelehemu.” She said some may be familiar with Coventry Carol-Lully Lullay, which tells the story of King Harold.
    “I like it because of the mood of it – it just seems ethereal in a way,” she said, noting the themes of mourning and cherishing ones who have died. “We always have at least one emotional song in the choir. ... This one stays calm and flowery and has an ethereal feeling.”
    Pierce Kohler, a sophomore, has been playing trumpet since fifth grade, and has been working hard on fine-tuning his part in “A Rollicking Hanukkah,” with its fast tempo and staccato requirements. In addition to playing in band, the lifelong Sitkan also plays baseball and basketball.
    Kohler thinks the high-energy, fast tempo pieces will be crowd pleasers, notably “A Rollicking Hanukkah” and “Holiday Galop,” arranged by Russell Standridge.