By Claire Fagan, Features Editor; and Riley Gonzales, News Editor
Continuing an annual tradition, River Hill’s music department will present their Prism Concert on November 5th at 2:00 PM. In the weeks leading up to the performance, students are dedicating much time to preparing.
The Prism Concert is the one chance a year that students belonging to different music groups, including choir, band, orchestra, guitar, piano, and some smaller ensembles, can perform on the same night, creating a unique overlap of music. Senior Allie Billups, a member of both Chamber Choir and Guitar 3/4, states, “The Prism Concert is one big concert where everyone in the music department gets together so everyone’s represented. It’s just a fun time because I can show people what matters to me as far as music.”
One unique feature of the Prism Concert is that transitions between pieces and music groups are no more than a few seconds—the audience does not applaud until the very end. Senior Aeryn Sanner, a member of Wind Ensemble, comments, “Everybody goes and there’s no breaks in between. It’s very logistically difficult but it looks cool.”
The Prism Concert’s complicated transitions have some students concerned. Sophomore Jonathan Mackrell explains, “Last year, in the orchestra, when we were playing our song, there was a choir that got in front of us and just stood there. I don’t want that to happen to us… I feel like it’s going to be very fast-paced, so I’m a little nervous.”
In order to make the Prism Concert as seamless as possible, music groups are spending every day preparing. Sophomore Gina Dhaliwal, a member of Vocal Ensemble, says,“Sometimes I’ll see a couple friends, we’ll FaceTime and we’ll just kind of go over parts that we’re having trouble with so we can all sing it together.”
The different ensembles are dedicating a lot of their class time towards practicing as a whole group, employing some unique methods in the process. Referencing her Chamber Choir class, Allie shares, “We go into the stairwell and sing a lot. It gives us confidence.”
A lot goes on behind the scenes of the Prism Concert, and it takes a lot of help to keep everything running smoothly. Rachel Warfield, a senior in the String Orchestra, shares, “When I’m done playing, I’ll go help with the lights and different things or just help move things around.” She then went into further detail on the technicalities of the concert, explaining, “They close the curtains and these big ensembles have to switch around while another ensemble in front is performing, so there’s a lot of things that need to be moved around and it has to be well-organized.” Teachers and students like Rachel who help during the concert are vital to keep the performances running smoothly. As well as this, the music groups have one dress rehearsal prior to the concert to practice the logistics and work out any issues that may come up.
The varying music genres and fast pace of the Prism Concert isn’t the only thing that makes it special. Each year, there is a specific theme that all of the pieces adhere to. Aeryn went into detail about this year’s theme, explaining, “It’s ‘Jazzy Little Numbers,’ so you can pick a jazz piece or a numbers piece. The Wind Ensemble piece is a number piece: it’s called ‘The Fives Prevail’ and it has a lot of 5/4 in it.” Music groups have interpreted the numbers portion of the theme in different ways, from songs with numbers in their names to using unusual time signatures.
River Hill music groups continue to polish their pieces, eagerly anticipating their upcoming performance. Gina reflects the sentiments of every music student when she states, “Obviously there’s still room for improvement… but I feel like if I keep working towards it that we can really do really well, so I’m really excited.”