By Cara Martinez
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s Band and Orchestra each received unanimous superior rankings for their performances at the Redondo Union High School Band and Orchestra Festival on April 4.
A total of three bands and two orchestras from Costa attended the festival. The bands were Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony, and the orchestras were the Philharmonic and the Symphony Orchestra.
Photos: The Wind Symphony Band practices their pieces in preparation for the Pop’s Concert on May 31
Each band and orchestra group played one to three pieces, including “With Each Sunset;” “Canaroes Fantasia;” “Shortcut Home;” “The Hounds of Spring;” “Radiant Joy;” “Vientos y Tangos,” and “American in Paris.”
“I think we did really well at the festival,” senior Adrian Yu said. “We made a couple errors, but I am still proud of how we performed even though there are some things that we can work on.”
The festival adjudicators were current and retired band and orchestra directors Harry Leff, Mitch Schuster, Peter Fournier and Robert Presler. They ranked the musicians on a scale from poor to superior. The judges critiqued the musicians on factors such as sound, tone quality, intonation and rhythm.
Video: Mira Costa Band plays “Disney Spectacular” during class.
“Our goal was to have a performance that creates a sonic environment and engages the listeners so thoroughly that they are engrossed in the performance,” Band Director Joel Carlson said. “The thing that I like the most about going to festival is the challenge to try to take adjudicators who have finely tuned ears and to try to turn them into any other audience members because our performance is so good that they don’t have anything for us to improve on.”
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The band and orchestra are currently preparing for the Pops Concert on May 31 in the auditorium.
“[The Pops Concert] is a celebration of the year as a whole, and it offers a chance for musicians and the audience to have fun and listen to music,” Yu said. “I am looking forward to this event, as it is going to be my last concert with the band. I am very focused on enjoying every last moment.”
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