Strings are being plucked, the players are tuning their instruments, and the audience readily awaits for the concert to begin. The orchestra has been called for their final performance of the school year. The concert took place on Mon. Mar., 19 at 6:30 P.M. All levels of the Orchestra performed together and conjoined into groups to perform set pieces

Niles West’s Orchestra conductor DaJuan Brooks was proud to have been able to direct the final pieces for this year’s instrumental group.

“We’ve been putting in work for this concert since January 8th. We’ve been accompanied by some wind players and performed a full symphony. The seniors have put in a lot of hard work this year and all the underclassmen have really looked up to them a lot,” Brooks said.

Junior Ethan Dasilva has participated in Orchestra since fourth grade and has been involved with the school orchestra at West since freshman year. Davila was ecstatic before the performance and pleased with the outcome of it.

“I was super excited for it. It was different compared to all the other ones we’ve done,” said Dasilva. “Songs were going right into each other, groups were changing, locations were switching, and the lighting was constantly changing. It was also tough knowing this was the last performance with the seniors. I’ve known them for a while and it’s not going to be the same without them.”

The underclassmen had high hopes about their last concert with the seniors and tried to not take it for granted. Junior Anthony Budjei was glad to finish this year with the seniors on a good note.

“This was a very important performance. Mr. Brooks was happy to see us enjoying ourselves after putting in all this time and effort into practicing for last night,” said Budjei. “I was glad to see the seniors having a good time for the last time of their high school career. I can’t really imagine it without them, but we’ll get through it.”

Sophomore Stephanie Mudreac was saddened given it was her last time on stage with the upperclassmen, but she had a good time performing one of her favorite songs with them.

“My favorite piece was Symphony no.1 because it’s so fun to play and I love how there’s so much structure in the song. The song also had such beautiful solos,” Mudreac said. “It’s so sad that the seniors are leaving because it means we are losing a lot of amazing players. They will be missed and their work will forever be incredibly appreciated.”