Memorial High School Orchestra's Amazing TMEA Performance at Lila Cockrell Theatre in San Antonio
The Memorial High School Sinfonia Orchestra led by Orchestra director Danielle Prontka along with Matthew Chan has recently performed on February 10th at the Lila Cockrell Theater in San Antonio for the yearly Texas Music Educators Association convention. Their concert consisted of pieces from Chinese Folk Songs arr. Zhou Long, Idyll for String Orchestra movement 5. Adagio by Leos Janacek, Visions and Miracles movement 1. All joy wills eternity by Christopher Theofanidis, Fantasy on a Japanese Folk Song with special guest performers, Memorial Orchestra Pals by Brian Balmages (Memorial Orchestra Pals are a group life skill students or students with disabilities. The Memorial Orchestra believes in bringing these students together by finding them light and happiness through the richness of music), Serenade for Strings, opus 48 movement 2. Valse by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Serenade on Swedish Melodies for String Orchestra movement 4. Andante Sostenuto by Max Bruch, and Young Apollo, opus 16 (for Piano and Strings) by Benjamin Britten.
Personally being a part of the Sinfonia orchestra along with two other HIMC team members, Kevin Zhang and Andrew Yang, we all first-handedly experienced the cooperation of a complete team. However, this would have not been possible without gruesome hard work and many vigorous rehearsals starting months prior to the performance. Recalling back, everyday, everyone would come to class prepared with intense focus and commitment as we would all strive to improve as much as we can. Our orchestra director, Danielle Prontka, did get quite frustrated many times when we couldn’t meet expectations (definitely never yelled at me). But at the end, this exhausting grind and determination from a group of just high schoolers eventually paid off and the term “synergy” started to really show its true colors. The dedication, grit, and leadership that I’ve seen from this orchestra absolutely amazes me and I believe is unmatched when compared to others. As a result, the Memorial High School Sinfonia Orchestra managed to give a wonderful musical spectacle that will be remembered for years and decades to come.
Author: Alex Wang
Editor: Kevin Zhang