From jazzy tunes to movie soundtracks, students filled the Carlmont Performing Arts Center on March 14 with practiced notes and talent for Carlmont’s annual Chamber Music Night.
The night featured 20 songs, with students from the Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band, and String Orchestra performing them together.
“I really appreciated watching something that was student-organized,” said Chloe Rui, a sophomore and audience member that night. “I felt all the effort that went into organizing and practicing.”
For Chloe Ken, a sophomore in a clarinet group performing Debussy’s “Claire de Lune,” practice began a month before the performance. The piece was initially composed for the piano.
“One of our members chose it, and it was classic,” Ken said. “It also demonstrated a lot of different clarinet skills.”
However, students in groups of various sizes faced unique challenges. According to Ken, the size of her group posed a few obstacles.
“Since the group was about nine to 10 people, rehearsals were all over the place,” Ken said. “Most of the time, not everyone could make it.”
Ken also said that due to the differing rhythm of the piece, written in a 9/8 time signature, some members were hesitant about playing.
“We would have liked to start practicing earlier but struggled choosing a piece,” Ken said. “Some people were on the fence about doing it because of the rhythm. Overall, I think we did decent though.”
The show also featured multiple student-composed pieces. For Arthur Li, whose group performed their piece “Celestial Exploration,” composing began as a way to experiment with something new.
“For me, I feel that there is considerably more expression that can be done with a self-composed piece rather than someone else’s,” Li said.
According to Li, time was also short. The first version of their song wasn’t complete until winter break in late December.
“In fact, the final version of the piece with all edits for playability and dynamics wasn’t completed until days before the performance,” Li said. “If it weren’t for the group’s willingness to play with, critique, and adjust the piece to fit their style and be playable, we wouldn’t have been able to perform.”
Due to time constraints, the group also had to cut out a large portion of the piece, performing well despite the missing parts.
“As for the parts we did play, we stayed together without making too many mistakes and were all quite impressive,” Li said. “Overall, I’m quite satisfied with how we did.”
Li also encouraged others to experiment with composition, finding that the result was exciting to play.
“It’s truly a fun process,” Li said. “Don’t feel intimidated by it; just open up any software and experiment.”
