Sara Levine
Reporter
At 7:30 on Friday night, the orchestra attended “Orchestra Underground: A Time and Place,” a concert at Carnegie Hall. Directed by George Manahan, it was the second show of three this season that featured American composers. The show featured five pieces, four of them world premieres, and the theme of the night was “time and place.”
Orchestra Director Leo Ficks chose this particular concert partly because the pieces played were all contemporary classical music, a style that his students are not accustomed to. “I thought it would be compelling for students to experience cutting edge, fresh music versus the traditional music they are accustomed to hearing,” he said.
Students noticed the difference. “The music had a different style to it,” Freshman Keaton McAuliffe said.
Students were able to experience a backstage tour before the show. “Anybody can buy tickets, but not everyone can see what it’s like backstage,” Mr. Ficks said.
Students claimed that the experience was both new and fun. “It gave me a lot of insight as to what happens backstage and what musicians go through before the show,” sophomore Katie Difazio said.
In the show, composer Chris Trapani’s piece, Westering, incorporated an electric guitar, amplified through a computer. Mr. Ficks explained that “the computer interprets and manipulates the sound, creating different effects.”
Freshman Alex Klapper thought that there was a lot of technology involved in the execution of the show. “The sound makes you question if it’s music or a machine,” Alex said.
The story behind the music especially appealed to the students. In keeping with the concert’s theme, each piece was written to represent the feel of a specific location and time period. According to the “Orchestra Underground: A Time and Place” pamphlet, Charles Ives’s piece, Central Park in the Dark, was intended to evoke the feel of a respite on a Central Park bench in the time before “the combustion engine and radio monopolized the earth and air.”
“My favorite piece was The Fire at 4 a.m. by Jerome Kitzke because I was able to picture the Native American bonfire it portrayed,” Keaton said.
Mr. Ficks indicated that it is important for teachers to “push the envelope” and give students the opportunity to experience new things. According to students, this novel show was successful at providing insight into the boundaries of music. “There were lots of different types of music, and it provided something for everybody to enjoy,” Alex said.
