On Thursday May 17, Ventura High School hosted their Spring Concert Series I in the auditorium. It consisted of performances from the String Ensemble, String Orchestra, Concert Band and Wind Ensemble 1.

The String Orchestra opened the concert by playing “Dark Night of the Soul” by Gjeilo. This was followed by the Global String Ensemble who played “Finale from Serenade for Strings” by Tchaikovsky, “Air for Strings” by Dello Joio, and “Iditarod” by Newbold.

After a brief intermission, the Concert Band performed “Themes of Offenbach” by Johnson, “Yorkshire Ballad” by Barnes, and “Sovereign Variants” by Curnow. Finally, the Wind Ensemble closed out the show with “Hebrides Suite” by Grundman, “Symphonic Suite from Robin Hood” by Kamen/Lavender, and “American Civil War Fantasy” by Bilik.

Senior bassoon player Julienne Cormier performed in and conducted a few of the pieces. She said, “All groups performed exceedingly well.”

[huge_it_slider id=”46″]

The spring concert is Cormier’s favorite concert of the year because “you really get to see how much everyone has improved since the beginning of the year.”

She added, “I’d say each and every group and individual in the department has grown as musicians and performers. We all are a big family and that is reflected in our playing because the closer we are the better we sound and work together.

This is Cormier’s fourth year in the program and she is “so proud of how much the program has grown and how hard everyone has worked.”

On Thursday May 24, Spring Concert Series II will be taking place, which will consist of Wind Ensemble II Honors, String Orchestra and Senior Concertos. This will be the final performance of the 2017/2018 year for the Ventura High School music department.

https://soundcloud.com/cugrpress/the-first-movement-of-the-hebrides-suite

Recording of the Wind Ensemble playing Grundman’s “Hebrides Suite.”