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On Thursday, December 17, Encinal Jr. Sr. High School’s orchestra held its annual Winter Concert. The concert was held over Zoom with student musicians, parents, teachers and friends in attendance. Over 120 attendees were present for the hour-long event.
Holding a live concert that requires musicians to play in synch can prove difficult. Instead, band director Antonio Gennaro had students prerecord their specific parts before splicing them all together. Encinal musicians recorded separate audio and video prior to the event.
“The hardest part for me was finding time in my day where it was quiet so I could be able to record,” freshman Lysha Merrit said. “The biggest challenge for me was recording our videos and audios,” added freshman Nicholas Ferguson.
Luckily for concert attendees, the event itself went smoothly.
“The recordings were good,” said freshman Belen Langarcia. “(They were) not slow and not laggy.”
The music department felt it was vital to hold the annual concert despite school campuses being closed since March.
“It is extremely important for students to be able to hold a concert so that they are able to represent and express their performance technique not just to their parents and peers, but for themselves,” junior Kash Mejia said. “Not only do you learn how to play your instrument and read music in the Encinal Music Program, but you also learn how to obtain showmanship skills and without a concert level performance, it is hard to really experience the amount of effort that showmanship takes in a musician’s individual career.”
The musicians enjoyed participating in a school event that gave some semblance of normal, in addition to showcasing their skills.
“Especially during this time, it’s good for students to have something to look forward...so loved ones can enjoy our music,” sophomore Angelica Ticas said.
The orchestra hopes to hold more online concerts in 2021. Videos of the winter concert can be viewed at sites.google.com/alamedaunified.org/ehsmusic/videos.
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