This December has been a very action-packed month for Niles West’s music program. Orchestra and choir started off the month with a combined concert on Dec. 7. and on Dec. 15. Orchestra, and choir and jazz band also held an all-school assembly for the holiday season on Dec. 15.

The winter concert started with the concert orchestra playing “Little Symphony,” by Carold Nunez. Then, the philharmonic played “Catharsis,” by Amy Cann, combined with “Dance of the Tumblers,” created by Nikolai Rimsky-Korakov. Symphonic played “Ice Sculptures,” by Brian Balmages and Nutcracker Suite Selections by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

The first piece choir performed was done by the Choraliers called “Come Travel With Me,” by Scott Farthing and “Theme from Elf,” by John Debney. The Chamber Choir sang “Pretty Saro,” arranged by Allbrook and Goodin as well as “My Favorite Things,” from The Sound of Music. Lastly, Master Singers performed “S’Vivon,” arranged by Darmon Meader, and “December in My Hometown,” by PINKZEBRA. The concert ended with the combined choirs and Symphonic Orchestra playing the piece Humxn Race by Raphael Saadiq, Andra Day and Tori Kelly together.

The concert took a lot of work and dedication from all parties and was put together in a span of four weeks.

“We meet during either 2nd 4th, 5th or 8th period every day. On certain days we’re picking apart certain pieces, sometimes some measures need some work. We are also collaborating with the choir so we had a couple of practices with them. It’s mainly about individual practice and coming together to pick apart a few songs. For this concert’s practices, the only thing we’ve done differently is have performance checkpoints, where they had to send excerpts of themselves playing parts of the song to see how their skills are and what we need to work on,” orchestra instructor Natalie Frakes said.

Senior and cellist Emma Bennett says that the orchestra’s success was because of all their practice.

“I had full confidence in our orchestra we’ve practiced so much and it all came down to the conviction of our players. I think all of our efforts pay off,” Bennett said. 

Since the performance came so soon after their fall concert, students used skills they learned from the beginning of the year. The concert also provided the groups with new and challenging music.

“A lot of the skills we learned from the fall concert have really come into play in our winter concert. It being the second half of the semester, the material is harder and more. But I think the skills built in the beginning are why we were able to do that. It started off with them getting the music and reading on sight, so instead of me giving them the notes to sing they have to figure it out. My job as a teacher is to provide them with an appropriate challenge but still be able to help them,” choir instructor Justin de la Cruz said.

After the concert, the students and instructors were very proud of their performance.

“We did pretty well and we sounded really put together. Personally, my favorite was ice sculptures and I think we did really well thanks to the pianist! There were some points that we did mess up but we pulled through. I was really proud of myself because I was on beat the whole time and was really in sync with the rest of the orchestra,” sophomore and violist Mimi Ali said.

As students walked into the assembly, the jazz band performed “Winter Wonderland,” by Perry Como, “Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi, “O Tannenbaum,” by Ernst Anschütz, and “Jingle Bells,” by James Pierpont. Choir went up first and performed “Put Your Records,” on by Corinne Bailey Rae and “Killing Me Softly,” by Fugees. After choir, the Sympotic Orchestra played “Somewhere in My Memory,” by John Williams and “Trepak,” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Lastly, jazz band performed “Let it Snow,” by Vaughn Monroe, “First Day of Christmas,” by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters and finished with “Christmas Time Is Here,” by Vince Guaraldi.