In this day and age, it’s hard to find an orchestra without adults involved. However, Phillips Academy’s only student-run orchestra, Unaccompanied Minors, has achieved tremendous success. Due to their happiness and excitement at working together, Unaccompanied Minors has quickly become a campus favorite. Unaccompanied Minors, also known as UM, performed their spring concert last Sunday afternoon in the chapel. Although they’d been preparing for some time, things still ended up being rather last minute. Two hours before the concert, an arrangement from “The Lion King” that conductor Lucy Maguire ’08 had composed was accidentally deleted. Maguire had to rewrite the piece entirely, making the performance quite stressful. According to Arianna Remmel ’09, the rehearsal process wasn’t easy either: “Because we’re only a club, it’s been hard to keep people. Some didn’t attend enough rehearsals to be prepared for the concert. A lot of people just didn’t turn up today. But I think we did well with what we had.” Although their performance was not perfect, it was clear from the start that it is the bonds of friendship between UM’s members that really makes the group what it is. Hannah Turk ’09 said, “All of us in UM actually enjoy our rehearsals. These are lifetime bonds we’ve formed.” Before their concert, the musicians all got together for a team cheer and then grinned at each other as they walked onstage. All were dressed in tie-dyed collared T-shirts and jeans. Their identical shirts furthered the sense of unity that UM exudes. Without any sort of oratory introduction, drums started off the first piece, “Highland Cathedral.” John Henry ’08 came in on the bagpipes, and the rest of the orchestra soon chimed in. Although the song was uplifting and no mistakes were made, the bagpipe sounded out-of-place. Its higher-pitched noise did not harmonize well with the rest of the instruments. On top of this, it partially drowned out the other sounds. The second piece was “Valse Triste from ‘Kuolema.’” This was perhaps UM’s most impressive number. It started off very simply with the strings plucking quietly and peacefully. Then the pace grew faster and the mood became happier. The mood of the song changed several more times, which made it a difficult piece for UM to play. “They seem much more together than they did during their first concert this year,” said Andrew Yankes ’08. “Lucy has gotten even better at working with the musicians.” The third piece was a complex concerto in G minor. Veda Eswarappa ’08 performed several violin solos, mixed with sections played by the entire orchestra with Heroy on cello and Andi Zhou ’09 on piano. Although the group accidentally skipped fifteen measures, the musicians managed to stay on track by watching and exchanging nods with their conductor, Maguire. The final piece was the “Lion King” arrangement. UM took the audience through all the ups and downs of this classic story in the space of a few minutes. After their last piece, Unaccompanied Minors bowed to much applause. As the crowd quieted down, Maguire eloquently informed the audience, “So there’s a lot of food downstairs. You can all go eat it, if you want.” As everyone started rushing downstairs for the reception food, some UM members started grumbling. “We could have done better. We played a lot better at rehearsals,” said oboe player Steve Kim ’11. Perhaps the concert didn’t live up to UM’s high expectations, but they did perform spectacularly considering the circumstances. And, most importantly, Unaccompanied Minors is now one big happy group of music-loving friends.
