Instructor in the Music Department, Peter Cirelli conducts the Tuesday night band.
The annual Academy Orchestras and Bands Family Weekend concert brought together a variety of genres for families and students to enjoy. Attendee Athena Zhang ’25, an active member in other music ensembles on campus, appreciated the variety of instruments.
“I am involved in music a lot… I liked how they had different music types. Like, minimalism and electronic[s]… [The] most memorable moment [was] the incorporation of the piano [and] the electronics… It was inspiring [and] cool,” said Zhang.
Organized and conducted by Music Department Instructors Peter Cirelli, Elizabeth Aureden, Christina Landolt, and Ray Daniels, the concert consisted of pieces performed by the almost a dozen Concert Bands and Academy Orchestras. With a total of over 100 students in these groups, preparation was “challenging,” according to Meara Wang ’26, a member of Chamber Orchestra.
“We had to hone our listening skills. There were a lot of initial struggles, but, in the end, everyone definitely enjoyed it… I think the audience was very intrigued,” said Wang.
Apart from rehearsals, students also faced other challenges during the performance but were able to persevere. Saya Jameson ’26 explained that the Chocran Chapel acoustics made it hard for performers to stay together.
“[Our performance] was pretty disorganized at first, but it forced us to listen more carefully to each other’s tempos and turned out okay… A memorable moment was when the electronic music first played during the [‘Pictures at an Exhibition’]… The audience seemed pretty confused at first which was funny but I think by the end they saw how it fit into the piece well,” said Jameson.
Conductor Landolt commented that the concert was more “high energy and exciting” when students were able to showcase what they have learned to their parents. She also received feedback from audience members on the experimental, minimalist piece “In C” by Terry Riley, which had a single piano note played repeatedly and short segments of strings.
“We had a lot of really positive feedback. One parent in particular said that when he first started listening to ‘In C,’ he wasn’t really convinced, but as the piece went on he thought, ‘Oh, I get it. This is really cool,’ and he went into a time warp, where time just stood still for a while,” said Landolt.
