Southwest preparing for first public concerts in 16 months
EL CENTRO — Performing live in front of an audience again will soon be a reality for Southwest High School orchestra students, who haven’t since been on stage since February 2020.
The SHS orchestras are in the final fine-tuning stages for their upcoming concert series, Night at the Movies II. Performance are scheduled for 7 p.m. on both May 21 and May 22 at the Jimmie Cannon Theater.
Because the theater (which has a max capacity of 1,100 persons) is currently allowed to have a little more than 10 percent capacity, only 150 tickets will be sold for each show day.
Tickets, which can be purchased by anyone in the public, are $8 each, and are being sold exclusively through the website Eventbrite due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
As of Tuesday, there have been 35 tickets sold for the May 21 show, and 15 for the May 22 show.
“So we have plenty of tickets left,” SHS’ director of orchestras Dr. Matthew Busse said. “If it sells out both nights, then we’ll offer a live stream.”
Proceeds will go directly towards Southwest’s orchestra program. All three levels of SHS’ orchestra program — cadet orchestra, philharmonic orchestra and chamber orchestra — will be performing.
Face masks will be required to attend the concert, and social distancing will be enforced.
The Night at the Movies theme has proven a hit with audiences in the past. A similar concert in October 2019 proved so popular, an encore show was organized later in the month.
The pandemic has so far forced Busse and his students to have only virtual concerts, which consisted of stitched-together videos of students performing at home.
In January, the orchestra program began brainstorming on how it could perform in-person — one idea was performing in the school’s parking lot with guests watching from their vehicles.
However, once the program received word that the theater was allowed to reopen, it was then a matter of picking the theme.
Busse said his students immediately asked him,
“Can we do another movie night?”
While picking a theme was easy, preparing for the concert has not been.
Students are given repertoire to learn individually at home then join together for a group rehearsal.
However, per school district policy, Busse can’t hold it against students if they don’t show up to a rehearsal.
“We cannot require them to show up or affect their grade,” the director said. “We’re treating this as something extra.”
Only 15 students can be present for a rehearsal on campus.
There has typically been one rehearsal a week for each of the three levels of the program.
“Everybody meets different,” Busse said. “It’s going to be a challenge to pull off a concert. Trying to get it all together is going to be a challenge because of the minimal amount of rehearsals.
We just cannot have full live rehearsals,” he continued. “We have to respect that.”
Given this, Busse is expecting to have a turnout of 25 students at most come show time.
All the details regarding the concert, however, have been set.
The concert has a set list of 10 songs, with the cadet orchestra playing the two opening pieces.
There will be at least 50 percent new selections compared to the first Night at the Movies, which featured music from movies such as “Star Wars,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Coco” and “Jurassic Park”.
“Now we’re working on perfecting the music,” Busse said. “The questions are out. Now we’re all set.”
SHS senior Hanna Zia recalled how excited she and her fellow orchestra members were to perform a Night at the Movies concert again.
“It was just such a new thing for us to do,” Zia said of the first concert. “I think because we had grown up with these movies — the scores of them.
We didn’t realize it would generate this much buzz last time,” she continued. “We just jumped right at it.”
Zia, a violin player, said she felt that it’s been “a little more difficult” to prepare for this concert than previous ones.
“In a normal year, we would always run through things,” she said.
However, she has found some delight in the return of limited, in-person rehearsals.
“It’s just nice to be able to play around other people,” she said. “I do wish we were back to normal, but I do like being able to practice individually so I feel confident coming into rehearsals. I think it’s going to be a great show.”
Senior Breanna Romero holds the elected position of president for chamber orchestra. Along with setting up practices and making sure sectionals go smoothly, she has taken on the job of being a sounding board for her fellow musicians.
“Sometimes as a student myself, I just want to be like, ‘I don’t care — what’s the point,’” she said. “But being a president, I’m kind of like, ‘You can turn to me, guys, if you’re struggling with mental health. Talk to me; let’s have a conversation.”
Romero, a cello player, has been in chamber orchestra four years.
She reflected on how she and her fellow players have had only virtual concerts for more than a year.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment to go back to school and play with other students,” she said.
Eventbrite links to purchase tickets
May 21 show: www.eventbrite. com/e/152171566251
May 22 show: www.eventbrite. com/e/152443048261