The City High orchestras performed for friends, City High staff, and family on Tuesday night. The three orchestras have been preparing for their mid-winter concert for nearly three months, improving their pieces with daily rehearsals and at home practice. 

“Each concert is unique and comes with its challenges,” said Megan Stucky-Swanson, Orchestra Director at City High.

The orchestras performed eight pieces in total, with Philharmonic and Concert both performing three, and Symphony performing three.

“I always have a mix of nerves and excitement in the days leading up to each concert.  One of the beautiful aspects to live music is you never quite know what you are going to get. Some performances we can play so effortlessly and other times it’s a struggle for every single note. . . the struggle is what makes everything worth it in the end,” Megan Stucky-Swanson said.

Symphony Orchestra performed Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, a slow, soft and complex, 10-minute-long piece. 

“I have waited 21 years to program the final piece of our concert, Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The piece is so complex that although I have had amazing orchestras within my 21 years teaching high school, I’ve never had an orchestra I trust as much as this Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra has been so mature in learning this piece of music,” Stucky-Swanson said. 

Each orchestra had more notes to play on this winter’s program than ever before, making it a more difficult concert than previous years’ winter orchestra concerts.