Winter Orchestra Concert
John Jay Middle School’s Orchestra Concert is Monday, January 10, 7 p.m. The concert is free. There will be one empty seat between each audience group.
Upcoming middle school concerts: Chorus Concert on January 19 and Band Concert on January 24.
From beginning to end, the Middle School’s Orchestra Concert features performances which will delight and stir the audience—including an arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a classic Irish dance entitled “Swallowtail Jig,” as well as the ominous “Walk of the Silent Zombies.”
The students’ mastery of bow techniques and tempo transitions is all the more impressive because of the constraints of the last two years. “The majority of time many of these students have played their instruments has been on Zoom,” said Conductor Elissa Leventhal, referring to last year’s hybrid-learning schedule. “We haven’t had a concert in two years. The last time our eighth graders played on this stage, they were in sixth grade!”
The sixth-grade orchestra chose to dedicate their performance of “Mythos,” a work which embodies old heroic tales, to first responders and essential workers who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic.
The concert features the three pieces by the Sixth Grade Orchestra, two fiddle tunes performed by the Chamber Orchestra, and three pieces by the Seventh and Eighth Grade Orchestra, concluding with “Momentum,” which the orchestra describes as their favorite piece.
“Listen for the accelerando when we start speeding up to return to the opening motif,” the student-introduction suggests. "Enjoy and thank you for spending this evening with us!"