Junior and concertmaster Ronni Chang walks onto the stage, stopping to face the cheering audience before making her way to her seat at the conductor’s left hand. As parents and students fill the auditorium’s seats, the orchestra and choir quickly rummage through their music sheets. Once everyone is seated, the audience goes silent, waiting with anticipation for the performance to begin.
The joint Camerata Choir and Advanced Chamber Orchestra (ACO) Masterworks concert took place on April 9th, 2025, in the Roberts/Dubbs Auditorium. Each year, the two groups come together to perform a larger concert known as Masterworks. This year, Camerata director Michael Driscoll and ACO director Nina Bishop decided to perform “Mozart’s Requiem.” The result was a beautiful interpretation of a piece I have always adored. Camerata and ACO sound balanced each other in a way that left me overall very satisfied and hoping to hear more in the future.
Before the requiem, ACO opened with “Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90” by Felix Mendelssohn, a lively and exciting piece. Upon listening, I especially noticed the first two chairs of the first violins. Juniors Ronni Chang and Neil Zhao especially stood out, and the sound of their bows against the strings resonated throughout the auditorium. Then, the brass section tied wonderfully with the lower strings and flute, although the flute solo could have been played a little louder.
As soon as the piece ended, the crowd burst into applause, and the camerata members, who to this point had been sitting in the front row, rushed to the stage and prepared to perform what they had been practicing for around two months.
When the chorus sang all together, supported by the orchestra, I understood how much the students must have worked on this piece. The tone of the cellos complimented the bass singers beautifully and left me satisfied with the performance.
In the Tuba Mirum of the Sequentia, beautiful solos were sung, although I wish they had had a microphone for the whole auditorium to hear better. Those who stood out the most to me were senior Rebecca Gale and junior Kianoush Rahimi. I thought both of their performances were especially well-rehearsed, with only a few slip-ups that were difficult to notice.
Following these solos was a quartet in the Recordare. In this part, sophomore Elise Ruberg and senior Reuven Buff especially showed great talent. Ruberg sang impressively high notes while Buff beautifully complemented the voices of his fellow performers.
While I had been impressed by Gale before, her performance in the “Agnus Dei & Lux Aeterna” impressed me further. She had sung as a tenor in her last solo, so hearing her sing as a soprano caught me off guard. Yet, she reached almost every note perfectly, with a beautiful intonation that captivated me almost immediately.
Before I knew it, Bishop signaled the orchestra to stop playing. The orchestra quickly stood up and faced the audience, which burst into applause. Overall, the night was an impressive showcase of the high school’s talents and how those came together over time to recreate a beautiful version of one of Mozart’s most renowned and timeless compositions.
