Both the Chamber and Symphonic Orchestras went to the large group festival at Lindbergh on Feb. 29. Symphonic, the highest achieving orchestra received a one, the best score possible. Their counterpart, Chamber Orchestra, received a two for their performance. 

Orchestra teacher John Mazar said how both the groups prepared for the competitions.

“We spent weeks, months planning what music we were going to play and working on all the spots that were hard and difficult. We just worked through them and did the best we could,” Mazar said. 

Mazar also explained how proud he is of the members of the orchestra because of the growth they have made throughout the year. 

“I think both groups have grown a lot. Our Chamber group from the beginning of the year has made huge strides. Symphonic has done the same. They worked really hard, and from the beginning of the year to where we are now I’m really proud of how the kids have progressed,” Mazar said. 

The competition had two sections. First, the group performs their music, then they walk off stage and go to a sight reading room. In the room, they are given a randomly selected piece and are graded on how well they play. 

Sophomore Addison Brown explains the chamber orchestra’s strengths and how the orchestra’s sight reading score brought up their overall score.  

“[Our biggest strength was] definitely sight reading. I heard that it brought up the score completely. We had a really hard piece. It wasn’t very hard at the beginning but there was a little temp shift in the middle and we didn’t have any time to prepare for that, it kinda just happened but we stuck together and worked as a team,” Brown said.   

Senior Taylor Tang is the first chair of the symphonic orchestra. She describes what they would do in class leading up to the competition and what they were most focused on going into the performance. 

“We had to do a lot of detail work [in class. We worked on] consistency with the stuff we practiced because sometimes it doesn’t happen,” Tang said.

Brown describes what the orchestra was nervous about prior to the competition. 

“[The most difficult part was] definitely just doing Themes and Variation, which was our final piece during the actual competition because the whole orchestra we just struggled with that piece and specifically a certain time in the piece,” Brown said. 

Mazar comments on the strengths of both orchestra’s during the Large Group Festival. 

“I think about the confidence aspect. Both groups went out and played with a lot of confidence and you know weren’t really scared of the event,” Mazar said.