On Friday, December 5, the PVHS jazz band had their annual winter concert. The winter concerts are one if, if not the biggest, events of the year for the jazz band.
Shellie Parkinson has been in charge of the jazz band and orchestra since 2002, and the concerts during this time of year are very popular.
“People around the holidays are a lot more shiny and happy,” Parkinson said.
“Everyone’s heart is just really full. And some of them have family in town, so we usually have a couple more people involved.”
Parkinson has been working with these kids almost every day for the past few months to get ready for this concert.
They rehearse together during first period and also practice outside of school.
“It’s very important, especially to me, because it is my Senior year and my second to last concert,” enior bass guitar player Dylan Sun said.
Before the band plays together, the players perform their own musical arrangements that they organized on their own.
“My passion has always been giving them some space to do their own music and their own assignments,” Parkinson said.
This adds to the surprise.
“Sometimes I hear something I’ve never heard in any of the rehearsals, and I’ve never heard them play before,” Parkinson said.
The jazz concert had six different music arrangements of around four to six students each.
One group performed “Midnight in Harlem” with guest singer and junior Eva Douglas.
This was unique, since there were no other songs with lyrics in the concert.
After the small arrangements, the entire band played together for another five songs, performing classic songs such as “Green Onions” and “A Nightmare on Berkeley Square.”
Toward the end, they played “Deck the Halls,” further cementing this performance as a ‘Christmas concert.’
In addition, on Friday, December 12, the orchestra has its winter concert.
senior Michael Wang is the lead violinist in the orchestra.
He has a solo in the upcoming performance, called “Winter” by Antonio Vivaldi.
This piece “is notorious for being extremely fast and hard to play,” according to Wang, and it frequently switches from everyone playing together to just him.
The musicians have high hopes for the event.
They only have two performances every year– in the winter and spring– so it is essential that they make these performances as good as possible.
The concerts are “how we show off all the hard work the orchestra and the conductor put into practicing for the last few months, while at the same time having fun playing for friends and family,” Wang said.
The PVHS Music Department looks to enlighten everyone’s holiday spirits with these fun concerts.
Everyone is invited to come to the orchestra concert on December 12, at 7:00 P.M. in the MPR.