WOODBURY — Students, parents, and teachers coming to watch Nonnewaug’s fall concert Nov. 18 are in for an unexpected show.

Musicians voted on a theme for the concerts this year. Ellie Mansfield, a senior at Nonnewaug, has been in orchestra for four years and helped choose the unique video game-related theme. 

“We had some time to think of different themes and genres of music, like fantasy and western as well as music from certain time periods, like the Baroque period,” Mansfield said. “Dr. [Jason] Bouchard let us fill out a Google Form, each student submitting three ideas for each of the three concerts happening this year. After they were all submitted, we voted on those options and the most popular from each season won. For this season, the theme that won was video games.”

Bouchard, the fine arts department chair, thinks that more musicians this year has led to a better performance within the group.

“One of the biggest changes is that we’ve just had an influx of more students, probably a good quarter more students than last year, so that truly changes the entire dynamic [of the group],” Bouchard said. “We have a lot of new students, so we are trying to help them get to the same level as our other students, and for our returning students, our upperclassmen, they’ve never played in an ensemble this large before.”

Victoria DaSilva, a senior in the Nonnewaug orchestra, thinks that the group has gotten closer to each other this year, and that getting to know each other is important for communication in orchestra.

“I think the rehearsal process was pretty similar to last year,” DaSilva said. “It’s not just doing stuff in an orchestra as strangers; we do icebreakers and get to know each other, so it’s easier to communicate during rehearsals and as a whole. Since orchestra can also be taken as a half-year [course], the people that leave and come in during January, even if they’re new to orchestra, usually catch on pretty quickly.”

Almi Morales, a senior in the Nonnewaug orchestra, said that while the process is slightly different, the end goal for the group is very rewarding.

“The whole thing has been very rewarding,” Morales said. “We got right into it quicker, which is different from past years, but it helped us click a lot faster, which helped for this year.”