Band and Orchestra performed their last concert of the year, showcasing Latin and Spanish music on Friday, May 15, in the MVHS auditorium. The concert lasted from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and was split into two separate parts featuring different sections of the band and orchestra with an hour-long intermission at 7 p.m. The first part featured performances from the MVHS string orchestra, Concert Band and Symphonic Band, interspersed with multiple small numbers from symphonic and concert band chamber groups. The second part featured performances from Wind Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonic Orchestra playing their own respective numbers, with the Tri-M chamber group and a subset of the chamber orchestra chamber group playing between.
The concert featured a variety of songs written by Latin or Spanish composers, such as Dennis Llinás’ “Un Cafecito,” Zequinha De Abreu’s “Os Pintinhos no Terreiro” and Arturo Márquez’s “Danzón No.2”, along with selections from the movies “Interstellar,” “Demon Slayer,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Cinema Paradiso.” Instrumental music director John Gilchrist says the presence of Latin and Spanish music in the concert came naturally, as a number of the songs selected for the concert coincidentally shared a common thread of being written by composers of Latin or Spanish origin. Junior trumpet player and piano soloist Helen Chen appreciates the liveliness of the Latin music and believes it was a beautiful way to end the year.
“When Gilchrist first introduced us to these pieces for this concert, I was focusing on the trumpet part,” Chen said. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s going to be so fun.’ Also, the trombones have a very prominent section — it was just amazing. I love what Mr. G. chose for this set.”
Gilchrist notes how he had to plan for the affairs for the band and orchestra, including a kickoff event for the marching band happening the next day. Gilchrist is also busy planning for the band and orchestra trip to Europe this summer.
“Leading up to today, things felt a little frantic,” Gilchrist said. “There’s been a lot going on both in the music department and in my personal and professional life, so having a concert at the end of the week was definitely something very presciently on my mind. I wish that I could have been more present this week, and by extension, more prepared mentally, because I think I would have been more kind of aligned with the energy of the performance. That being said, I was very excited once I was eventually on the box to get to conduct the students, and when I started to hear how we were doing, I felt very positive about it.”
Junior and cellist Catherine Zhang agrees with Gilchrist about how busy the week was for the performers. Zhang says the combination of studying for AP exams and finals led to challenges as the show approached, causing the band to have to cut a few numbers from the final show.
Despite this, Zhang believes the show was a success, particularly highlighting Chen’s and senior French horn soloist Daniel Cooper’s performance. After winning first place among 36 students from both MVHS and Lynbrook High School in the 2026 U.S. Open Concerto Competition, Chen performed her winning piece for this final concert. Chen explains that it was exhilarating to play Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto for the show, noting the differences between playing for the concert and for the competition.
“During the live auditions, you can’t hire a whole orchestra to play with you, so what you do typically is you get a piano accompaniment to play the piano reduction of whatever piece you’re playing,” Chen said. “And the piano is a beautiful instrument. You can produce a lot of sounds, but it’s just not the same. So, the first time I rehearsed with our orchestra, I was amazed. It was so different from rehearsing with another pianist.”
Chen adds that this concert was especially emotional, given how it was the final concert with this year’s seniors. Senior and euphonium player Regan Abraham was very happy with the seniors’ final performances and believes the performances went smoothly overall. Despite thinking songs like “Howl’s Moving Castle” starting off a little too slow, Abraham believes this performance had some of the band’s best runthroughs for the show.
“With this being my last performance, I’m glad to say it ended on a good note,” Abraham said. “I’m glad I didn’t make any major stink-ups when I was playing my pieces, and I’m glad that all the other seniors who were with me also didn’t make any major mistakes, at least I could hear from them, so as my last performance, I genuinely think this is the best possible outcome.”
