By Ruoshan Dong ’21
Musicians in the middle school Symphony, Concert Strings, Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Beginning Strings and Beginning Band performed in their annual winter instrumental concert, “Joyous Sounds,”  on Dec.1 at 7 p.m. in the Saperstein Theatre. The groups were conducted by instrumental music teachers Starr Wayne and Emily Reola.
Before the concert began, members of Cadence for a Cause played short holiday pieces in the Bing lobby to welcome audience members. Beginning Band opened the concert, playing “Ode to Joy” by Ludwig van Beethoven and were followed by Symphonic Band. After a short intermission in which a slideshow of the musicians was shown, Beginning Strings and Concert Strings performed. The concert concluded with Symphony playing “Ruslan and Ludmila Overture” by Mikhail Glinka.
“The performance went really well. I was really happy with all the groups. I thought that the energy on stage was awesome and we all had a ton of fun,” Reola said.
The musicians had been practicing since September and the concert gave them an opportunity to showcase their talents. Musicians said that they are proud of all the hard work that they had put into practicing and thought that the concert was a success.
“I believe that the concert was a success. It was so fun to perform with my peers and all our hours of practicing really showed,” Symphony violinist Allison Park ’21 said.
Concert-goers enjoyed the music and said that they were impressed by the effort put in by all of the musicians.
“I really enjoyed the concert. The musicians’ hard work really paid off, and I loved all of the songs they played,” Nancy Zhang ’21 said.