The Robert Dubbs Auditorium stage was filled with performers dressed in all black. The students began playing their instruments: violins, violas, cellos and basses. The music had a fast tempo, but did not feel rushed. Suddenly, it came to a halt and the musicians drummed their feet against the floor as the audience applauded. On March 23, the high school orchestra performed alongside the Brookline Youth Orchestra and the Town Wide Orchestra.

Although there was a wide variety of musicians’ ages, the performance achieved an integration of the orchestras that also helped younger students with more challenging music, increasing their level of comfort playing harder pieces.

The concert began with the high school orchestra, conducted by Jorge Soto, performing the piece “La Bella Cubana,” where the tempo ranged from very slow to loud and fast.

The high school orchestra performed a piece called “Brookline Movie Medley” with the Town Wide orchestra, an intermediate orchestra composed of students in 6th-8th grades. This piece incorporated the theme song of a variety of different movies, and they all faded together with a bridge, a transition between melodies.

The Brookline Youth Orchestra played with the high school orchestra for two different pieces: “Andante Cantabile” from Symphony No. 5 and “Romanian Folk Dances.” As the rhythm flowed from very slow, to fast all at once and slow once again every single stroke and brush of the instrument was elongated and purposeful.

Overall, the attention to detail and the musicians’ effort was phenomenal and the concert achieved its goal of preparing students in the younger orchestra for playing harder pieces and participating in larger, more challenging orchestras.