On Dec. 13, musicians, friends, and family gathered in the Saperstein Theater for this year’s middle school winter instrumental concert, Winter Serenade. With performances from six ensembles and more than 200 students.
The program featured three bands, two orchestras, and the middle school symphony. All the bands were conducted by Starr Wayne, middle school performing arts teacher, and the symphony was conducted by Emily Reola, seventh-grade dean and performing arts teacher. This year, Harvard-Westlake welcomed a new orchestra director, Pedram Pourghazi. Pourghazi said, “I love how students are motivated here,” Pourghazi said. “Every day my students come to class wanting to learn new music.”
This year, Wayne’s Middle School Jazz Band, alongside Reola’s Cadence for a Cause—a group of Harvard-Westlake musicians who use their talents to spread joy and positivity throughout the Los Angeles community—performed eight holiday-themed songs to welcome the audience. The songs included “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” “The Polar Express,” “Sleigh Ride,” and more. Gael Thomas, a jazz trumpet player in the Middle School Jazz Band, said, “This is my first year in Jazz Band, and I’m thrilled about the many opportunities like this that there are to offer. I enjoy watching families gather around close friends and holiday music.”
While the concert took place just days ago, students and faculty are already planning for the spring concert. Music, often described as the most effective form of art, brings people together and allows for self-expression without judgment. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Harvard University scientist once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.”
