Mira Costa’s Orchestra performs at Disneyland

By Camille Juton
Staff Writer

The Mira Costa Philharmonic Orchestra performed at Disneyland on April 14th as part of the Music in the Parks’ program where they won first place as the overall best high school orchestra.

The Mira Costa Philharmonic Orchestra performed three songs at the concert. These songs included ‘Jupiter’ by Gustav Holst, ‘Prelude to Carmen’ by Georges Bizet, and ‘The March Slav’ by Chechovski. Two of the songs played were judged by adjudicators and the orchestras were then ranked on a scale of superior to poor.

“The adjudicated festival is an opportunity to play, still get the perfomance practice but a little more under the gun because now we are playing for judges who are experienced professional musicians,” orchestra conductor Peter Park said. “For most going to adjudicated festival is for us [MCHS orchestra] to learn, for us to grow, for us to get good insight and input from our judges.”

All students who are a part of the Philharmonic Orchestra were eligible to go to the Concert in the Parks festival at Disneyland. All of the string players in the Philharmonic Orchestra went as well as several hand-picked band members.

“Along with the many other high school and middle school orchestras from the area, the festival also featured choirs, bands, and guitar ensembles,” freshman viola player Rebecca Bacich said.

Compared to other orchestra festivals and competitions, the Concert in the Parks festival was a way for the Costa Philharmonic Orchestra to get feedback from professionals. Although they won first place, the main focus of the trip was to improve as a whole.

“There’s always competition in life but what we want to ultimately achieve as an orchestra, we want to continue to grow and strive for excellence,” Park said. “This does not necessarily go hand in hand with competition.”

The Music in the Parks program allows schools from around the area to perform and compete against each other in amusement parks. After the Concert in the Parks festival, Costa won a superior award.

“I thought the trip was an overall success,” Bacich said. “We performed very well and everyone had a great time at Disneyland.”