The Orchestra or “Orchesquad” as they have dubbed themselves performed their Christmas Concert in the auditorium at 7:00 pm on December 12th. The concert featured many different songs played by all seven of the orchestra groups from Elementary to Highschool.

“The orchestra concert was one of the best I have seen. The variety of instruments and students from Beginning Elementary, to Intermediate Elementary; from Beginning Jr. High to Advanced Jr. High, then to Combined High School to Chamber Strings was outstanding,” said Karen Watson, audience member.

The concert featured 12 numbers, the first being played by the Combined GHS, followed by the Intermediate high school, Beginning elementary, Beginning jr. high, Intermediate elementary, a special number conducted by Sabrina Winward, the Advanced jr. high, and the Chamber Strings.

“I think the students performed well. We will always have things to work on, but that is one of my favorite things about the performing arts; you can always improve,” said Andrew Swan, orchestra director.

The concert showcased familiar Christmas songs that students have worked together on and perfected over the course of several months.

“I enjoy the friendship we all have and playing together as a group, because playing on my own is not my favorite, but playing as a group when it all starts coming together is amazing,” said Rebecca Anderson, senior.

Orchestra consists of many students playing one of four different string instruments; the violin, viola, cello, and contrabass

“I loved playing Carol of the bells because we just all came together so well for that one, it just sounded awesome,” said Isabelle Lewis.

The orchestra is approaching festival season, with their first performance being on the 27th of February. That performance will be the Black Tie Concert and will be free admission, although they will take donations at the door as it is also a fundraiser to help raise money for their Disneyland/Heritage Festival trip.

“My favorite thing about teaching in general is watching students improve. Especially teaching orchestra, I get to watch as students develop over the course of the years,” said Swan. “I get to watch them grow up, sometimes from 5th grade. All teachers get to see their students learn and grow, but I have students for up to 8 years, and they grow incredibly during that time.”