By Sanjana Jain, Design Editor
Since October of the 2022-23 school year, River Hill’s orchestra department has been organizing early morning musical performances (serenades) for the River Hill community. Mr. Kim, the orchestra department director, believes that these performances will have a positive impact on everyone, especially the students. “The purpose of a morning serenade is to provide musical mindfulness to the River Hill community,” he said, but explained an underlying benefit to the performances being in the morning. “The kids come in in the morning with a lot of anxiety. They’re anxious about their upcoming test or quiz and we are all tired in the morning…and listening to this music gives them a sense of serenity.”
Mr. Kim originally presented the serenades as an assignment to his string orchestra GT classes, where every student had to present a piece of music of their choice to him. They could choose to work individually or in groups and had to decide on their music style, composer and arrangement accordingly. Mr. Kim explained that upon letting students pick their own music he has observed that it “makes them motivated to practice.”
But students still have limited freedom. Since picking the music is the most crucial part of a performance, Mr. Kim reviews every piece and then discusses their suitability with the students. “They find music from different websites and then it turns out that it’s not quite a good arrangement.” If there’s an issue, instead of asking students to forfeit their choice, Mr. Kim asks them to try finding the same piece in a different arrangement that caters more towards their strengths as well as makes the piece more suitable for their ensemble.
Once a piece has been finalized, students are expected to practice on their own time, but as their performance date approaches, Mr. Kim allows students to use the school practice rooms during class. “[Claire and I] had several practice sessions during school because of designated times,” said junior Anton Doan. He and his partner performed Howl’s Moving Castle, a piano and violin duet.
The order in which the performances commence are also important. Once all the pieces for a week’s performance are finalized, Mr. Kim places them in an appropriate order. “Sometimes kids play music that is slow, but then next morning I don’t want to put slow music again. I want a different group to do a variation – faster and more rhythmic. You hear various styles, different tempo and speed,” he said. Sophomores Carlton Luu and Logan Ji played Divertimento in D major by Mozart. “We chose it because it was quite the uplifting piece in the morning,” said Carlton.
Students from all grades and levels have performed a wide variety of pieces. Junior Ella Jiao and Justin Kim played Salut d’Amour. “It was relatively easy, but it also sounded nice and it was a nice arrangement or a violin-cello duet,” explained Ella.
To make these performances more inclusive, the orchestra department announced that any student could perform in the serenades, and the students don’t necessarily need to be taking an orchestra class this year. “We had a few band students – a brass quintet and a woodwind quintet – perform and they did a wonderful job.” Willing students can contact Mr. Kim any time or can sign up using a QR code posted around the school.
A fortunate opportunity enabled Mr. Kim to host these performances. “I heard that the PTSA was providing some grant to teachers who were thinking of a project. Purchasing music is very expensive, so I was brave enough to apply for that grant and the PTSA generously granted my request. I got a $500 grant,” he said. The orchestra department was able to purchase all serenade music for the first and second quarter, and believe that there might be enough to cover all costs for the third and fourth quarter as well.
Unlike last school year where the morning performances solely occurred for a month, this year they hope to continue for the entire year. “I think it’s been good for everyone. There have been a lot of non musically inclined people standing around in the audience at all times, so it’s interesting for some people,” reflected Anton.