Simsbury High School Orchestras Perform Thursday, Dec. 11

This Thursday night, December 11, the orchestra students of Simsbury High will present their winter concert. The concert, which begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public, will be a mix of music. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring a canned food item to participate in a food drive sponsored by the Simsbury High chapter of the Tri-M Music Honor Society.

The Freshmen orchestra will open the concert with “Aria and Allegro” by Arcangelo Corelli. Corelli, born in Italy in 1653, is a composer who represents a link between musical eras. He was a significant influence on Baroque composers who followed him, particularly on Fredrick Handel.

“Aria and Allegro” is representative of his style, highlighting the violin section and providing dramatic flourishes for strings. Following this piece, the orchestra will perform 19th century composer Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod.” This is the 9th piece in his 14-movement “Enigma Variations.”

The last piece the freshmen will perform is “Troika,” composed by Sergei Prokovfiev. The piece may sound familiar to the audience; it is one of five movements in a larger musical suite, and is periodically used as background music in movies about Christmas (and Russia!).

Following the freshmen, the Concert Orchestra, made up of sophomores, juniors and seniors, will present two contemporary pieces. Elliot del Borgos, who composed music for “Apollo 13” and other movies, as well as the 1980 Olympics, has written “Aboriginal Ritual,” an exciting, energetic piece that can be performed by a full orchestra or alone by a string section.

Filled with different rhythms and a mysterious section specifically for strings, the piece is regularly performed by high school musicians.

The final piece, “American Princess,” was composed by Bob Phillips, and is also a challenging piece rhythmically, It emphasizes the bass and cello sections of the orchestra to create a musical picture of a young woman on her wedding day.

The evening will end with a performance by the Chamber Orchestra, the high school’s premiere orchestra ensemble. They will begin with Estonian composer Arvo Part’s “Summa.”

Part, known mainly as a composer of choral music, re-scored “Summa,” which was originally written for voice, so that it could be performed by instrumentalists. The world-famous Kronos Quartet includes “Summa” in their performance repertoire.

The challenging-to-pronounce and even more challenging to play “Zigeunerweisen,” by Pablo de Sarasate, is the second piece on the Chamber Orchestra’s program. Clara Tang, a senior and principal of the second violin section, will be playing the solo.

This 19th century composition is based on themes from Roma (“Gypsy”) music and is a favorite among violin virtuosos, who often include it on recordings because of its interesting variations.

The concert will close with “Simple Symphony” by Benjamin Britten, a work for string orchestra first written for strings when the 20th century British composer was a child, and later re-written when Britten was an adult.

First premiered in the 1930s, “Simple Symphony” has been used in several movies, most recently the Bruce Willis/Wes Anderson movie “Moonrise Kingdom,” which prominently features many of Britten’s works.

The Simsbury High music staff and students invite everyone -- parents, students and members of the community -- to attend this exciting concert and support music in our schools.

Chamber Orchestra: Isabel Bielat, Maya Brody, Kate Campolieta, Katrina Cirilli, Shannon Cirilli, Lauren Estell, Gabrielle Ger, Rebecca Grandahl, Savannah Herbek, Candace Ho, Abby Leighton, Matt Nardozza, Brian Sennott, Nicole Sojkowski, Liana Sowa, Clara Tang, Hailey Vasas, Sarah Zahorodni, Zach Zambuto

Concert Orchestra: Joseph Adorno, Brenton Arena, Sophie Cassano, Ryan Chen, Peter Constantin, John Daguerre-Bradford, Mark Dennen, Jacob Feldman, Abigail Fleming, Julia Fleming, Maria Galle, Daniel Gerardi, Julia Glaser, Matthew Gutierrez, William Holzman, Brian Johnson, Alice Li, Emma Lorenzen, Tara McHugh, Montana McMahon, Juliet Michaelson, Jaylynn Moffat-Mowatt, Riley Morkan, David Nelson, Molly O’Donnell, Kevin Oleskewicz, Matthew Petrela, Daniel Shenk, Ellen Shenk, Pritika Seshadri, Ye Jie Shin, Emma Sloan, Davin Steinmetz, Jasper Stone, Lukas Stone, Emily Sullivan, Candace Tang, Naomi Wright

Freshmen Orchestra: Hali Cai, Katie Campson, Haley Carr, Owen Casey, Erin Choi, Radu Costache, Emma Costello, Keara Dennehy, Maria Hodson, Bethany Hunter, Rachel Kuang, Andy Li, Thomas Lim, Andrew Ma, Grace Neagoy, Olivia Rovalino, Paige Sciallis, Julie Sojkowski, Alexandra Stamboulis, Henry Wong, Ryan Xu, Kelly Zeilman