This year, prospective students coming to campus for revisit days are in for a treat. As is tradition, the Choate Symphony Orchestra is performing a bright, upbeat piece for families — one that they’ve been perfecting all year. These performances, which have occured on all three revisit days, are sure to be a memorable part of prospective families’ visits to Choate, if not a key factor of these students’ decisions.
This year’s piece is a crowd pleaser. Mr. Phil Ventre, Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble, said, “We’re going to be playing the Rossini La gazza ladra overture, which means ‘The Thieving Magpie.’ It’s based upon an opera in which a magpie steals information from people who are corrupt. It’s a wonderful, effervescent overture featuring the entire orchestra. It’s really quite wonderful.”
Mary Gorman ’19, who plays the French horn, said, “It’s a pretty fun piece to play. There’s a lot of very big, dynamic contrast, going from loud to quiet.”
This isn’t a piece you often see played by your typical high school orchestra, though. Instead, the piece is usually seen in the stands of professional musicians. However, this level of difficulty doesn’t faze students. “I think at the beginning it was really hard, [but now] I think we’re really excited. We work super hard, and we’ve been working on this piece for the past year, so we’re pretty confident,” said Supriya Chang ’21, who plays the oboe.
The orchestra is also planning to play the piece as a part of its upcoming concert tour. “We’re going on our sixth concert tour to Italy this June, and we’re playing music only by Italian composers,” Mr. Ventre said. “What fun!”
Historically, these performances have had a profound impact on prospective students, especially those interested in playing in the orchestra. Eliana Kim ’20, a concert mistress and violinist, said that the performance will “give a lot of sense to the incoming students, especially if they’re interested in music: what it’s like to be part of the Choate orchestra, how high a level we’re playing at.”
In fact, just the phenomenal orchestra program alone can be a deciding factor for musically-inclined prospective students. Mr. Ventre said, “Oftentimes, when they hear the orchestra and they talk to me personally, we have long conversations after the second visit. This changes their mind — if they were looking at someplace else, they come here instead. It’s happened many times.”
To be sure, these performances don’t only appeal to future scholar-musicians. Chang said, “I think that music, even if you aren’t a musician yourself, can really have an impact. I hope that the new students who are coming this year and revisiting will really enjoy and see how much effort we put in — even if they don’t play themselves — just to see how hardworking and passionate we are as students.”
The performances aren’t just for prospective families. The entire Choate community is encouraged to come support the orchestra in the Chapel. “I hope to see everyone there, even students,” Kim exclaimed. “Come see us!”
