Last Saturday, November 3, Evergreen Philharmonic had their Season Premiere Concert at Issaquah High School with the Middle School Honors Orchestra as a guest performance. The Middle School Honors Orchestra, directed by Mr. Chase Chang, opened the night with three pieces. The first was “L’estro Armonico” composed by Antonio Vivaldi. Senior Sanjana Chintalapati, says, “I really enjoyed the first [song]! It was my favorite!” The second piece played was “Night at the Mausoleum” composed by Brent Smith. This intense and almost mysterious song was accompanied by a xylophone. The third piece was “Coffee” composed by Almon Bock. This piece was my favorite as it maintained a whimsical tone and utilized a plucking technique (pizzicato) that I had never seen before.

After a brief intermission, it was Evergreen’s time to perform. The orchestra, consisting of violins, violas, cellos, basses, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, a piano, and a harp, was conducted by Leah Weitzsacker. They first performed “Academic Festival Overtune” by Johannes Brahms. Brahms was going to be awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy, but the University of Breslau expected a grand gesture of gratitude. Angered that he had to compose a piece to accept the award, he created a symphony that was composed of a collection of drinking songs, making the piece an interesting assortment of tempos that were all still joyous. The next piece was “Slavonic Dance Op. 46,” composed by Antonin Dvorak. This song was composed of three parts, each one unique but still cohesive. The first section “Presto” was my personal favorite, with an uplifting tone that softened and intensified perfectly. The next piece performed was “Symphony No. 5,” written by Ludwig van Beethoven. This particular piece was intended to be a finale for the composer; there were multiple times in which I thought the song was coming to a conclusion, but it launched into another powerful part of the piece. My favorite part of the performance however, was the last piece: a collection of melodies from “The Greatest Showman.” The conclusion was powerful and I felt connected to the piece as I recognized a majority of the songs they selected to play.

As someone who knows very little about classical music, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The songs were captivating and I found myself constantly in awe of how fast performers were able to move their fingers. After the performance, senior Hannah Chernin explained, “I think season premiere went really well! It was new for all of us as we got a new conductor this year, and she did a fantastic job bringing together a really wonderful program. It’s always really fun to just be able to play good music with quality musicians.” Even though it was her first time conducting with Evergreen Philharmonic, conductor Weitzsacker was very pleased with the performance and explained, “It was really exciting to perform with them for the first time! They were fantastic. I was thrilled to work with them!”

Evergreen’s next concert, Home for the Holidays, is on December 15 at 4 p.m. in the Issaquah High Doug Longman Performing Arts Center.