On January 12th at 7 pm, the Atholton Pops Concert began with a stirring movie trailer highlighting the theme of the evening, “A Night At The Movies.” The curtain rose to reveal the Atholton Symphonic Band and their director, Mr. Posner, as he took the stage. With a grin, he counted the band straight into their first number, a John Williams medley.
The auditorium had been beautifully decorated for the event, with a red carpet placed in the hallway directly preceding the Box Office, and strategically placed around the auditorium were stars bearing the performers’ names, as well as the movie posters made by the performers.
The Symphonic Band also made people dance in their seats with a medley of songs featured in the popular Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy. The excitement only continued from there.
“It was so fun! The whole band had a great time,” said senior Emily Dwyer, a member of the Wind Ensemble, which closed out the concert with a Harry Potter medley.
But the festivities began even before the concert started when, under the direction of the Music Student Leadership Team, trailers for the movies that featured songs that were performed in the concert were shown in order to hype up the audience.
The Orchestra performed two pieces. The first one was the theme to Schindler’s List, with a solo by Joshua Kim. The second was a Pirates of the Caribbean medley.
“I’ve been playing in Chamber Orchestra for 4 years,” Kim said. Kim also mentioned that he got the music for this performance a mere two weeks ago, so his performance was especially impressive given the time constraints.
The choirs were also in full force, singing “The Hanging Tree” from The Hunger Games and “Cups” from the hit film Pitch Perfect, using actual cups as props, moving them about as Anna Kendrick does in the original movie.
In addition to all the larger ensembles, there were also many small groups and solos populating the evening. Choir student Joelle Popa performed “Out Here On My Own” from the 1980 movie Fame and Grace Tyson performed the theme song from the BBC series Made In Chelsea with piano accompaniment by Kobi Foutts. The Percussion Ensemble also brought down the house with a rendition of the the theme from The Pink Panther.
Another impressive performer that evening was orchestra student Veronica Adler, who took the stage by storm with her rendition of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.
Historically, the Pops Concert has always been on a weekend in January. The Wind Ensemble got their music for Pops Concert soon after the Winter Concert in December, according to Emily Dwyer. The theater was also more packed than in recent years with every seat in the auditorium-and every parking spot-filled.
But no matter how crowded it was, the Atholton community was brought together by the event. Through the combined efforts of the music ensembles, as well as many soloists, the Atholton Music Department was able to put on a show no one would soon forget, but as the great Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”