{"id":2801,"date":"2022-11-04T10:41:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2022-11-04T10:42:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:42:00","slug":"come-watch-the-morning-serenades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/come-watch-the-morning-serenades\/","title":{"rendered":"Come Watch the Morning Serenades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sanjana Jain, Design Editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since October of the 2022-23 school year, River Hill\u2019s 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. \u201cThe purpose of a morning serenade is to provide musical mindfulness to the River Hill community,\u201d he said, but explained an underlying benefit to the performances being in the morning. \u201cThe kids come in in the morning with a lot of anxiety. They\u2019re anxious about their upcoming test or quiz and we are all tired in the morning\u2026and listening to this music gives them a sense of serenity.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cmakes them motivated to practice.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cThey find music from different websites and then it turns out that it\u2019s not quite a good arrangement.\u201d If there\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201c[Claire and I] had several practice sessions during school because of designated times,\u201d said junior Anton Doan. He and his partner performed Howl\u2019s Moving Castle, a piano and violin duet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order in which the performances commence are also important. Once all the pieces for a week\u2019s performance are finalized, Mr. Kim places them in an appropriate order. \u201cSometimes kids play music that is slow, but then next morning I don\u2019t 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,\u201d he said. Sophomores Carlton Luu and Logan Ji played Divertimento in D major by Mozart. \u201cWe chose it because it was quite the uplifting piece in the morning,\u201d said Carlton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students from all grades and levels have performed a wide variety of pieces. Junior Ella Jiao and Justin Kim played Salut d\u2019Amour. \u201cIt was relatively easy, but it also sounded nice and it was a nice arrangement or a violin-cello duet,\u201d explained Ella. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 To make these performances more inclusive, the orchestra department announced that any student could perform in the serenades, and the students don\u2019t necessarily need to be taking an orchestra class this year. \u201cWe had a few band students – a brass quintet and a woodwind quintet – perform and they did a wonderful job.\u201d Willing students can contact Mr. Kim any time or can sign up using a QR code posted around the school.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fortunate opportunity enabled Mr. Kim to host these performances. \u201cI 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,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike last school year where the morning performances solely occurred for a month, this year they hope to continue for the entire year. \u201cI think it\u2019s been good for everyone. There have been a lot of non musically inclined people standing around in the audience at all times, so it\u2019s interesting for some people,\u201d reflected Anton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sanjana Jain, Design Editor Since October of the 2022-23 school year, River Hill\u2019s 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. \u201cThe purpose of a morning serenade…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/unnamed-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2803,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions\/2803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}