With the end of the school year fast approaching, the RBHS Music Department held one final celebration of the RBHS chamber orchestra, chamber choir and wind symphony bands’ hard work with a combined spring concert. Although separate spring performances for each ensemble already took place in March, in recognition of retiring staff members and graduating seniors, RBHS musicians held an additional concert, May 12. 

To accommodate for the number of players and audience members, the performance took place in the Main Gym rather than the usual Performing Arts Center. The concert included individual pieces from each group conducted by Orchestra Director Alison Lankheit, Choral Director Mike Pierson, Director of Bands Patrick Sullivan, and Associate Director of Bands Eric Spaeth. Alongside each of the respective pieces were four combined pieces where members of all three ensembles, groups of musicians, played together for the first time in department history.  

Of the many pieces performed throughout the commemorative night, the very first was a senior string feature with BNB piano trio members Brandon Kim, Nicole Parker and Ben Xu opening the program with the “Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2.” Kim said the piece had “dark material” which filled out each of the grand sections of music and was fun to play despite being the most physically demanding piece he has ever performed. 

Following the string trio, the chamber orchestra was the first ensemble to perform. With the lengthened program and multiple performances left, the orchestra only played two pieces compared to the usual four to six pieces that the group would play during a regular concert. 

“As an orchestra, we first played a piece called ‘Mendelssohn String Symphony No. 2,’ and it’s a light and fast piece that sounded nice and was a nice tone shift from the more dense and heavy Shostakovich,” Kim said. “The next piece, [‘Of Glorious Plumage’],[…] had a soaring and emotional melody that fits quite nicely with this concert being Mr. Pierson’s last.”

After a swift stage change, the chamber choir took the floor. Although the concert was a celebration of all three sections of the music department, it was an especially special night for the choir, whose director, Pierson, was retiring after 18 years at RBHS. The choir performed four total songs, two more than both other ensembles. 

Alongside their director, the performance acknowledged members like senior Drew Graff, who previously received recognitions such as being selected for both the 2022 Missouri District Choir and All-State Choir. The experience he brought from participating in such events allowed him to lead others in preparing for the concert. 

“Our first piece of music, [‘Swiloyini Makhanana’], was one me and my fellow All-State member Sunday Crane learned at All-State. It’s a traditional South African Folk song about a sinking boat. We decided that we wanted to bring it back and sing it in our choir. Sunday and I taught it without any sheet music, and it was very fun to learn,” Graff said. “Our second song was also a fun number. It was ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls as an English madrigal. Last year we did ‘All Star’ as an English madrigal, and Pierson wanted to continue that trend.”

Reflective of the concert’s theme, the closing numbers of the choir’s performance were more nostalgic in nature, and Graff said Pierson chose them to represent the emotional end of an era for many within the department. 

“Our third song, [‘Sing Me to Heaven’], is more sentimental for us as a choir. Pierson sang the song in his high school choir, and it was one of the songs that really inspired him to go into teaching choral music,” Graff said. “Our final song, ‘Freedom Train’s a Comin,’ was a piece [Pierson] thought was fitting as we were coming up on the next chapter of our lives with graduation. He said that if the world really listened to music like this, then it would be a better place.”

As the youngest of the three established ensembles, the wind symphony took inspiration from the collaborative nature of the concert. Junior Allison Schooley said the two band directors intentionally sought out both choral and orchestral music elements in their song selections. 

“For our two pieces, [which] we performed just as a wind symphony, we played a choir arrangement called ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ and an orchestra arrangement called ‘Conga Del Fuego Nuevo,’” Schooley said. “[The pieces] were both transcribed to be applicable for a band to play them.”  

With wind symphony rounding out the individual performances, the concert dedicated the next portion of the program to all ensembles. The combined choirs and symphonic orchestra joined together to play.