The Carlmont String Orchestra participated and performed at the Celebrate the Music Festival while aiming to inspire younger students and showcase their abilities.
Celebrate the Music is an annual music festival that brings the Belmont community together through food, performances, and other activities. The Carlmont String Orchestra was among many groups that performed on the day of the festival, April 30.
This has not been Carlmont’s first participation in the event, as they have done it many times before. In fact, Jordan Webster, the music teacher at Carlmont, believes this opportunity is a great way to inspire younger students, which is why the orchestra comes back year after year.
“When the Carlmont musicians perform, they inspire kids who are younger to begin an instrument. For the elementary or middle school students already studying music, they get to see what they will be doing in just a few years,” Webster said.
The students performed various pieces of music, including “Game of Thrones,” “Waving Through a Window,” “City of Stars,” “Kashmir,” “Over the Rainbow,” and others.
These pieces created an atmosphere for younger students to give them a new perspective as to what they could be playing in the future.
“Most of the time, young musicians are not as excited to play classical music, so showing them that they are able to play more modern songs inspires them to want to continue their instrument,” said Nico Golomb, a violinist in Carlmont’s String Orchestra.
Besides being a great inspiration for younger musicians, the performance also allows high schoolers to gain experience performing in front of crowds and in conditions they don’t usually play in.
The orchestra is used to playing indoors with no wind and no other sounds. This is very different from the festival performance in Twin Pines Park, which was outdoors.
According to Golomb, the wind posed a new challenge, especially for many first-year students who had never played in such conditions.
“While playing, I saw multiple stands fall over, which made it more difficult for me to focus and stay on beat,” Golomb said.
The orchestra also had to face similar obstacles in the year before.
“I remember there was a lot of wind last year, which caused us to adapt and play louder in order for the audience to hear,” said Nate Dempsey, a violinist from Carlmont’s orchestra who participated in the 2023 Celebrate the Music Festival.
Despite these issues, the ensemble persevered and continued with the performance. As for the coming years, Webster hopes to return, keeping the Carlmont music program and other programs alike filled with enthusiastic musicians.
“Celebrate the Music has been a 20-year tradition and I expect that we will continue for years to come,” Webster said.
