Bands perform at annual winter concert

Clare Beezhold

Staff Writer

Costa’s Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony performed various holiday pieces at their annual winter concert on Dec. 3 in the auditorium.

The performance began with the Symphonic Band playing “Jingle Bells Fantasy” and “Hanukkah Is Here.” The Wind Ensemble performed “Greensleeves” and “Holiday Portraits,” and the Wind Symphony performed “The Night Before Christmas,” “Cantique de Noel” and “Festival Fanfare.”

“The symphonic band had really been working hard on each of the pieces,” clarinetist and sophomore Summer Syed said. “I was really excited to see our hard work pay off during the concert. In rehearsal, we worked a lot on our dynamics.”

Each band performed their own respective pieces. To close out the concert, the three groups joined together to play “C’est Noel” by Andre Jutras.

“My favorite part of the concert was playing in the combined piece at the end,” percussionist and sophomore Hayley Balen said. “It was fun being on stage with everyone and hearing all of us playing together.”

The bands started preparing these pieces as early as October and put in many hours of practice both in- and outside of school to perform at their required level of excellence. Each band group met every day to practice for an hour during class, and the Wind Symphony had additional practices that come with being an honor level band group, Balen said.

“The concert went really well,” band president and senior Nadia Owen said. “Each of the groups’ performances were amazing and it was really exciting to hear all the work that we have been putting into our practice show through and it was nice to just relax and listen to them play beautiful music together.”

The band department’s next concert is the All District Band Festival, which takes place on Feb. 28 in Costa’s auditorium. It will include all Manhattan Beach Unified School District elementary school bands, Manhattan Beach Middle School bands and Mira Costa bands. “It will be interesting to see different pieces they are playing and level that they are at,” Owen said. “It will be really fun to interact and talk to some of the younger kids as well.”