HMS violinist Michiko Takahashi ('08), violinist Sophie Abrahams-Dematte ('08), and violist Nicole Perez ('10) participated in the New Hampshire All-State Music Festival, held in Concord, NH, over the weekend of April 12-14.
Housed in the swanky, newly-renovated Marriott Courtyard hotel, the girls were thrilled to have a room all to themselves (no roommate from another school was assigned to their room, as had been expected). There was a new set of rehearsal logistics at this year's festival: rather than being bussed to Concord High School for rehearsals, all the students needed to do was go downstairs and rehearse in the hotel's Grand Ballroom. Never leaving the hotel for nearly 48 hours got to be a little claustrophobic at times, but proved to be a big time-saver and logistical simplification as well. Lastly, the students got to socialize more with other Festival participants, as they didn't have to jostle with hundreds of Concord High School students at mealtimes.
The Festival included a concert band, a chorus of over 150 students, and the full symphony orchestra (the last of which included all three HMS students). The Orchestra's director was David Gilbert, who is Conductor in Residence at the Manhattan School of Music and director of the Greenwich (CT) Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Gilbert also served in the past as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of the Beijing Philharmonic, and as Principal Conductor of the American Ballet Theatre. He has also conducted the National High School Honors Orchestra and the All-Eastern High School Honor Orchestra.
After travelling very slowly and carefully through the spring slush storm and enjoying lunch at the Red Arrow Diner in downtown Manchester on Thursday, the girls had four hours of rehearsal Thursday night, followed by a jam-packed day of rehearsal on Friday. On Friday night, a 70s funk cover band entertained the students (numbering in the hundreds, from high schools state-wide), many of whom ended up singing, cheering, and forming a conga-line hundreds of feet long (yes...they were TIRED!).
On Saturday morning, after dress rehearsal, the girls enjoyed a little bit of downtime before the afternoon performance. We went back to Manchester for another Red Arrow Diner meal (The Food Network was filming in the kitchen while we were there!) and a much-needed long walk around the Millyard.
The Festival concert, held at Concord's Capital Center for the Arts, was an absolutely wonderful performance played to a packed house. Excerpts from the professionally recorded CD are on the recording archive page (see the "student musicians" links in the left hand margin).
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