Spanish students and teachers enjoyed a live music concert performed by Spanish-speaking musician Javier Mendoza, his son Gabriel Mendoza on the drums, and bassist Chuck Williams on April 14.

Spanish teacher Kim Lackey was one of the organizers of the event this year. After a long break from the tradition, Lackey said it was good to have it return.

“We started doing this concert I believe in 2007 at Eureka High School. Our last concert was in 2018 and we haven’t done one at Summit since I started teaching here, but they did do one many years ago. It was exciting to have the concert come back after Covid,” Lackey said.

Attending the concert, sophomore Jonah Roberts said there was a variety of music played during the event.

“The band played really good original music from their band and they played a cover of ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry but they spiced it up,” Roberts said.

Roberts said that other student’s behavior was only a small damper on the day’s fun.

“I wish the crowd would’ve been a little more respectful but I really liked it, I thought a lot of people were vibing and it was a really nice break from the day. I’m glad people had fun,” Roberts said.

The end-of-year stagnation could be another reason the concert was so well received, Roberts said.

“After spring break you seem to get a slump in the whole school, no one is really doing work and we need to get hyped up. The academic pep assembly was cool but I think the live concert boosted us up a lot and brought a lot of excitement to the school,” Roberts said.

Lackey said that although there were some initial nerves about student attendance, the show had a great crowd.

“We were worried about ticket sales because most students waited until the very last minute to buy them. We were so glad that so many could have attended and we hope next year the concert date won’t conflict with the orchestra and choir trips so we can have more students there,” Lackey said.

For Lackey, the concert isn’t just a fun tradition; it also brings her love of music into the school.

“I love all of [Mendoza]’s music. He’s been playing music for about the same amount of time that I’ve been teaching. I go to his shows all the time in my free time with my friends. To be able to bring something that I absolutely love to the students of Summit was really meaningful,” Lackey said.

The event gives students an opportunity to see Spanish in real-world contexts and relate it to the recent units in their classes, Lackey said.

“I think it’s fantastic to have something that all levels of Spanish students, I-AP, can enjoy and watch together as a community. Through our unit about music in Spanish III and the Locura De Marzo celebrations, students really connected with the language through music so this is just another opportunity to explore that but as a group,” Lackey said.

However, Roberts said he would like to see an event like the concert become available for students outside of Spanish.

“I feel like they should have advertised it more to the other language classes or other students. I also think we could do maybe two of those every year and it would make people happy,” Roberts said.