The Season to Spread Music Cheer!

As the holiday season comes to an end, Band, Orchestra, and Choir were ‘decking the halls’ (with music!) to put together their wonderful winter concerts. On December 11, 15, and 18, Redwood’s choir, orchestra, and band ensembles (in that order) performed their winter concerts and L.J. Williams!

By: Ella Chan

Choir this year featured their men’s and women’s chorus, advanced women’s chorus (Oreonic choir), Chamber choir, and finally Ranger choir. Together, under the direction of Melchor Carrillo, put on a wonderful Christmas concert. 

For all three ensembles, they begin their year with focuses towards festivals, and for the band, a competitive marching season. 

“We do a ‘put that music away,’ and then we start a second set for Christmas. It has nothing to do with festivals at all.” Carrillo says. 

He selects songs with the intent of invoking emotion within their audience.  “I try to find pieces that are going to maybe bring a smile… So that’s kind of what we do for Christmas.” Carrillo says. 

This is no easy task, though, as they rehearse every week in class for about 3 months. 

For Chamber and Ranger choir member Luke Carlos, ‘27, he found that despite the strength of the Chamber choir, there was difficulty blending and balancing to sound as a group. This struggle was soon overcome through personal time spent practicing. 

“I just wanted to do my best, honestly, to do well and have everybody in the audience to have a good time,” he says.

Similarly, for Chamber and Ranger choir member Katelyn Abbott, ‘28, both ensembles had quite a handful of content, so memorizing music was a bit of a challenge. 

Each group had prepared 4 pieces. Carrillo adds, “One is a combined piece that we do at the end. And then if we have instrumentalists, like we used a percussion ensemble this year, so we rehearse with them.”

“My favorite tune is probably Patapan because I love the percussion, and it’s just so fun to sing with everyone,” Abbott says.

Beyond this in class preparations, soloist have to audition for their part and choose a song of their own. “They practice on their own. And then once we get in the theater, we have a chance to work for them a little bit and get them ready to go.” Carrillo says.

This year, Redwood’s choir concert was able to feature 5 soloists. 

“I was excited to hear all the solos as a lot of my friends are doing solos,” Carlos says, “but also to see how far the choirs have progressed.”

Abbott adds on, “I was just looking forward to hanging out with my friends and just making fun music for Christmas… I just wanted to make people happy and just like, get some smiles with the songs we did.”

Just as the choir, the band had a wonderful concert. Their several ensemble included: Jazz Band A, Jazz Band B, Wind Ensemble, Ranger Band, and a percussion ensemble. 

Band Director Jordan Ray says, “It’s just a nice way that we can showcase all of the ensembles, especially coming off of marching band season, where it’s kind of been really centrally located and on one ensemble for the season.”

Ray puts together a program that audiences can enjoy while also giving students “a good challenge to work up the skills to concert literature.”

Ray goes on to highlight, “we come off a really competitive marching season, and then right away we have a parade, and then we have about 2 weeks to kind of get that ready to go. So there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes things that happen. But a lot of that has nothing to do with teaching. It’s mostly logistics, and I was going off of that.”

The bands had been working on their pieces for a month or two. Their hard work really goes to show as Ray says, “we demand a lot of them [all the ensembles], and they still rise to the occasion because they’ll really make sure that their craft is taking stage. I’m really proud of those kids because we play pretty high-level music… and so to watch those kids play musically, coming off at such a demanding season, I’m really proud of them.”

Advanced Band and Wind Ensemble member, Demarie Avila, ‘27, was looking forward to her first performance as a Wind Ensemble member. “I like playing Christmas Toons, it’s one of the songs from wind ensemble, because I get to play piccolo, which I don’t get to do in advanced band.”

Avila finds that getting accustomed to her new instrument, piccolo, was one of the greater challenges for her. “I just kept working on it, and I went to lessons, and now it’s a lot better.”

Similarly, Advanced Band and Jazz Band A member, Cooper Zschau, ‘28, put a considerable amount of time and effort into his parts. At the concert, he was excited to play for jazz band and “make family smile.”

 With such a short amount of time to put the set together, Ray shares he feels most successful when his students are able to play the music and put together a concert. 

“The success comes from seeing the kids perform. As long as we can put on a performance and feel good about it, then I feel great,” he says. 

For Redwood’s Orchestra, their ensembles consisted of Intermediate, Advanced, and Chamber, featuring orchestra students from Oak Grove, and 2 senior soloists. 

Though the senior soloists’ pieces weren’t holiday-themed, the rest of the program was a variety of holiday music. 

Orchestra instructor, Rodney Yokota, shares that most of the music from their concert was music the groups had done before. “We probably did four or five new selections on this program. It always comes together, it’s always hectic for sure, but it’s always a fun concert.”

The ensembles had been working on their pieces for about 3 months. 

Chamber and advanced orchestra member, Sierra Carlson, ‘27, shared that though she was looking forward to playing with friends and for family, “I deal with a lot of anxiety when it comes to concerts, and I think playing with friends definitely helps kind of cool me down.”

“I hope that the audience will have a lot of fun and enjoy the songs we play,” Carlson says.

Similarly, another chamber and advanced orchestra member, Kara Sanchez, ‘27, faced some challenges when it came to playing their set. “A lot of shifting to the higher notes and stuff. Just like, playing with confidence because it’s kind of hard, especially when there’s people watching.” She says.

Regardless, Sanchez was excited to play with everyone in the ensemble and show the audience what they had been working so hard on.

How do They do It?

“You just got to have time for it. It sounds cliché, but you got to make time for things that are important.” Luke Carlos, ‘27

“I think just setting aside time and like making sure you don’t procrastinate to be on top of everything.” Katelyn Abbott, ‘28

“Set time for practicing and then for doing my other stuff, like with other classes, it’s easier.” Kara Sanchez, ‘27

“I usually devote an hour or so to practicing, and then the rest of my day I usually spend for like study and stuff.” Sierra Carlson, ‘27

“Getting what you need done. I guess, just like making sure I have everything done before I go to rehearsal, and if I don’t, making sure I have time after to get that stuff done.” Cooper Zschau, ‘28

“Well, for now, I make sure if I have free time during class, I try to get stuff done during class, and that usually frees up a lot of time.” Demarie Avila, ‘27

Tags: band, choir, concerts, holiday, orchestra, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood rangers