The conductor was waving his baton faster and faster while changing the tempo rapidly as sophomore violinist Nathan Crawford and the Pit Orchestra could barely keep up.
The tempo got even faster, but slowly the musicians fell into a rhythm. After private lessons, out-of-class time preparation and practice at home, the pit orchestra performed music for the Theatre Collective’s “Frozen” musical at the spring musical.
The orchestra played classic songs like “Let It Go,” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and “For the First Time in Forever” to accompany the live play on the stage above.
Senior Cello player Justin Hernandez said they had to learn a lot of music in a very short amount of time to be prepared for the show. The team went over 100 pages of music right before winter break, and immediately after, had multiple rehearsals to prepare for the performance.
“I honestly just prepared by practicing a lot at home,” Hernandez said.
Musicians also used time in school to make sure that they would be able to pull off something they had never tried before.
“Mrs. Long let us have small sectionals with private lesson teachers, and we also took class time off just to go play the “Frozen” music as full groups,” Hernandez said.
The team knew it was going be different and took extra time to meet up outside of school to practice instead of only practicing by themselves.
“I’ve had my music outside of school, and I got together with the other saxes to work on a piece,” sophomore saxophone player Wyatt Ittigson said.
Despite the challenges, band director Chris Bronson said it was the best performance he had seen from the orchestra yet. He said they did a lot of front end work to make sure they were able to put a group together that had a good shot of making the music work.
“We selected the pit orchestra students out of our top orchestra and top band,” Bronson said. “We sent out an interest form, and then I sort of made selections based on what I think they could play.”
He said that with so much music for them to learn, they dove straight into rehearsals.
“This is a lot of music for them to undertake, so we went all the way through the book the first day,” Bronson said.
He said he has conducted music in the pit for musical performances four times, and he was extremely proud of what his musicians were able to pull together this year.
“I think this was definitely one of the best performances overall, Bronson said.
He said part of what made it special was the challenge the music presented.
“It’s one of the harder books, or more challenging books, that we’ve had to do,” Bronson said. “And of those four musicals that I’ve previously conducted [this was the toughest]. But I think they wound up getting to a really high level.”
Despite the challenges, musicians said the event went really well, and they wouldn’t hesitate to play in the chaotic pit again.
“I had so much fun,” Crawford said. “It was so worth it. I’m going to do it again next year.”
