On Saturday, November 17th, I attended the CU Wind Symphony concert. I chose to attend this concert when I first saw a flyer advertising the program about a few weeks ago. A particular piece struck out to me — ” The Symphonic Dances of West Side Story”, originally written by Leonard Bernstein and transcribed by Paul Lavender. I had played this piece of music during my senior year of high school in my wind ensemble. This piece was by far the most musically challenging piece I had ever worked on in my life. Running a course of over 20 minutes, this piece took a lot of endurance and technicality that could not be matched. Despite the difficulty, it was definitely my most favorite piece of music that I had ever played.
In high school, I was heavily involved in the music program, which was boasted as being one of the strongest high school performing arts programs in New York City. I played a total of 5 instruments — the euphonium, tuba, trombone, french horn, and trombone. I was in the wind ensemble for all four years of high school, the marching band during my sophomore and junior years, and the jazz band during my junior year. My instructors were very tough and they pushed us to the best we could be; most of us regarded our band classes as the hardest classes, even harder than AP or college-level academic classes.
“The Symphonic Dances of West Side Story” means a lot to me because it resembles the culmination of my extraneous high school music career. It was the last song we had played during our high school graduation. The piece itself encompassed so many different styles of music and kept me on edge for the entire duration. Hearing the CU Wind Symphony perform this piece was a real treat for me. I had never expected to hear this piece again after playing the final note during my high school graduation. Every section, phrase, measure, and note took me back to when I had performed it during high school and brought me back to a much simpler time. I would like to thank the CU Wind Symphony for giving me that experience. And although I am not currently involved in any music groups on campus this semester, I may look forward to auditioning to the CU Wind Symphony in the future.
I always enjoy hearing a piece performed that I had performed in the past for precisely this reason. Most of my favorite orchestral pieces (I played violin in high school and sang in my high school’s choir) are those that I’ve played before. Also I would definitely recommend that you try out for a music ensemble here at Cornell. I didn’t participate in any music group my first year, and when I joined Chorale my second year, I found that I had really missed performing music.
I also attended this event, and thought that it was pretty interesting. I also play music, and I also like listening to performances of songs that I have played. This event was actually the first time that I’ve been to a performance by CU Wind Symphony, so I look forward to attending another performance next semester.