WOODBURY — Sounds of classic cinematic masterpieces from iconic movies filled the air of the auditorium when Nonnewaug’s music department presented their fall concert, “An Afternoon at the Movies,” on Nov. 19.

The concert opened with the opening theme of Star Wars performed by the NHS orchestra. It was followed by “Found/Tonight” from Hamilton and Dear Evan Hanson, performed by the NHS choir.

The orchestra then performed the theme song from Game of Thrones. The choir followed up with “Landslide,” featured in Jack Frost.

Themes from Disney’s Frozen was performed by the band, followed by “Still Hurting” from The Last 5 Years by the choir. The orchestra closed the main performance with “Highlights from Jurassic Park.”

The concert concluded with the choir and orchestra performing a medley of songs from the academy award-winning soundtrack of La La Land. 

“The concert came off phenomenally because of the commitment of every student in the program and to the music of each person in the ensemble,” said Dr. Jason Bouchard, music department director and orchestra teacher. 

The concert took months of preparation and students were happy with the results. 

“I think it went pretty well; we really pulled our weight and communicated [through the music],” said Emily Crawford, senior flute player and band manager. 

The choir had a unique way of preparing for the fall concert. 

The choir has eight students with three being full-time and five being independent study students; this is due to not being able to fit the choir class into their schedule. Rehearsals were conducted in a unique manner to pull together their performance. 

“Since the end of October, we had bi-monthly practices on Wednesday nights with everyone for an hour to put together our pieces, while in class we would run through and figure out any problems and we helped the independent study students,” said Michaela Pellino, senior choir manager and music department vice president. 

Rave reviews and a silent auditorium proved the success of the choir’s ability to overcome their challenges to succeed.

“I believe it’s one of the best performances we’ve ever had,” mentioned Pellino. 

Veteran members of the orchestra agreed: “[It was] personally one of our best [performances] in the four years we’ve been here,” added Crawford.

“You can sense the musicality from everyone and the admiration for everyone and the family we are creating in the department,” added Bouchard. 

The next performance of the NHS orchestra and choir will be the Woodbury and Bethlehem tree lightings Dec. 2-3.

 

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