OPINION
What happens when you get on the stage, and you see three quarters of the seats free and wide open?
Because as soon as we get up on the stage, three quarters of the people have left, leaving an open hole where the sound can reach but the people can’t.
For us, the high school orchestra, it was very saddening to see that only our parents and a few other people had stayed to watch and listen to us for the winter concert. We were put under stress and worked so hard over the half year, and it wasn’t appreciated as much as we would have liked it to.
Julia Herceg, a sophomore in the orchestra, expressed her feelings over the lack of people at the concert.
“I felt that it was really unfortunate that people left the winter concert when the orchestra performed,” she said. “We had been practicing extremely diligently and to have no one watching our hard work was really unfortunate and made me upset.”
This occurrence does not only affect the orchestra. For past years, when the chorus went last, much of the audience left too.
Recently, the music teachers, Mr. Goldberg and Ms. Gillepsie, have suggested to play a combined song with the chorus and orchestra to keep the audience, parents and students, at the concerts. Although we admit that a joint song at the end can encourage people to say, this can only be a temporary fix. In the long run, the music teachers will not always be able to find time to practice together for every winter and spring concert.
As part of the orchestra, we understand the difficulty of time management, so we cannot force people to stay. We would, though, really appreciate that extra half an hour that you could probably give.
Our solution is that we should let each group switch on who goes first. For example, the orchestra can go first for the winter concert and the chorus for the spring concert. Then, the following year, the groups can switch.
Kent Hoyama, a sophomore in the orchestra, expressed the same opinions about this solution.
“If we change the order, I’m sure more people would stay because their parents would have to stay [and] watch their child. I think this will be a better method than what we had [previous years].”
Lydia Pak, a senior in the chorus, also expressed the similar opinions.
“Switching the order each concert would be a good idea, since there are plenty of people who leave before the end. Though it sounds kind of messy, I think it is best way is to make sure that people stay.”
Many people believe this will result in a much greater response, for this solution is fair in contrast to having the same group open at each concert, and we hope to see a change moving forward.
