Mr. Thomson, the Orchestra teacher, has been teaching for the past 11 years at West. He is a beloved teacher to the staff and students. Even now, the students in the Chamber and Symphony orchestras have already begun preparing for their performances for this year’s Winter at West. “We’re only getting together for the first time with the rest of the symphony on Thursday, but the strings have been hard at work for weeks on the repertoire. So, I think we’re in very good shape,” said Mr. Thomson.
Just recently, on October 16, was the first orchestra concert of the school year where the three orchestras, String Ensemble, Sinfonietta, and Chamber performed. With the six weeks of preparation, the concert was an upstanding start to future concerts.
Looking to the future, with selected pieces for this year’s winter at West, “This year, we’re going to play a movement from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. And I’m very much looking forward to that.” said Mr. Thomson. Furthermore, the symphony orchestra will also be performing Sleeping Beauty Suite 5, a wonderful and iconic piece by Tchaikovsky.
Controversy is that the tickets for Winter at West keep increasing in price every year, from further knowledge, the tickets for Winter at West for the past years have always been a sellout and a huge fundraiser for the WSHS music program. Because of this, organizers have used this to their advantage in making more money for the school music program by raising the ticket prices a little bit every year. This year it is 22 dollars per ticket; in order to offset the cost of expensive trips the music programs take almost every year.
In all, after the orchestra’s successful concert and increasing ticket prices for Winter at West, the concert has been a well-beloved performance to West for years in the past and into the future. The Orchestras at WSHS take much time and effort to continue to bring new exciting music and performances for all to enjoy every year.
