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Beverly attends Band’s 2013 Spring Concert

By Arman Zadeh, sports editor 
On Thursday, May 30, as part of the annual spring performance four of Beverly’s performing arts groups came together in this year’s Spring Concert. The show, which was the last for many of the class’s seniors, included performances from Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Concert Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, along with a mixed group with a performance of “Skyfall”.
A notable addition to this year’s show was the Symphonic Band’s performance of pieces from composer John Williams’s work with Star Wars. The group performed three pieces from the famous franchise: “Princess Leia’s Theme”, “The Imperial March”, and “Star Wars Main Theme”.
The group had a relatively short amount of time to prepare for the concert, having only spent about three weeks practicing their Star Wars pieces.
“I think that the short turnover time between playing the festival music for competitions and the more popular music for this concert may affect our mastery of the songs,” Symphonic clarinet player Matthew Sater said. “However, I’m confident that our groups will play well even with less practice time than we normally have.”
Concert Band featured a collection of Disney songs as the medley titled “Disney at the Movies”. The piece included a number of classic Disney songs from movies such as “Cinderella”, “The Lion King”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid”.
As a special performance, the Jazz Band and a few Dance Company members organized a presentation and dance of Adele’s “Skyfall”, sang by junior Tommy Marcus and freshman Scott Senior.
For the first time in six years, the Spring Concert also included a full show by a drumline, highlighted by choreography and solos by assistant drum major Elbert Kim. The piece told a fictional story about the band and its construction of a drumline robot, tying together many aspects of the band in one large, unified performance.
“This year we tried to do something very different. We talked about what we wanted our show to look like. We wanted choreography, and playing on abstract instruments and a storyline to make everything coherent, so our instructors came up with this show called ‘The Drumline Robot’,” Kim said. “It seemed really silly at first, and I think its still kind of funny but it incorporates different aspects and approaches to drumming. ”
The end of the show included the announcement of next year’s Drum Major, Nathan Shaw, a highly anticipated occasion.
“At the end of the concert, I will be announcing who won the Drum Major position for the 2013-2014 school year,” former Drum Major Matt Yamodim said. “Doing that is going to be really hard for me… but it’s time for me to leave and leave our band in someone else’s hands, the same way I got the position last year.”
The concert also marked the end of many seniors’ band careers at Beverly, including that of Yamodim, who has been part of the band program for the past four years.
“It’s always hard realizing that something you’ve been doing for four years is about to end, but I’m ready to make this concert something I’m going to remember for a very long time,” Yamodim said. “I won’t be surprised if I get a little emotional towards the end of the concert, but I feel like I’m leaving on a good note and I’m happy doing that.”
 

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