Winter Concert 2025!

As one little parting gift before the semester came to a close, our orchestra program hosted an exciting and memorable concert on Dec. 12— a wonderful union of choir, orchestra, and band students that welcomed a lot of holiday spirit and joy for the new year to come!

The opening performance of our winter concert was a magnificent display of musicality by Arcadia’s Concert Choir and Chaunteurs.  Concert Choir started their performance off with “Jingle ALLLL The Ways,” a medley containing multiple new ways of singing the Christmas classic “Jingle Bells,” and it was followed by a very melodic version of “Silent Night,” which softly engaged the audience and allowed the viewers in the auditorium to sing along.  

Next to take the stage were the Chaunteurs, singing “Ubi Caritas,” a traditional Latin hymn, and “A Very Merry Madrigal,” which incorporated many other recognizable Christmas masterpieces and many “fa-la-la’s” to boost the holiday spirit.  

To finish off the choir part of the performance, Concert Choir and the Chaunters came together to sing “Look at the World,” a sentimental finisher that left the audience with feelings of joy and happiness directed towards the pieces to come.

The first orchestral performance of the night was by Premier Orchestra, playing light and cheerful songs including “Winter Sleigh Ride,” “The Christmas Song,” and an imaginative version of a popular Christmas song titled “Deck the Hall of the Mountain King.” 

String Orchestra was next, with three more thrilling selections to share.  They began with “Plink, Plank, Plunk!” which was filled with a lot of musical onomatopoeia, and followed it with “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”  Their third piece was something very innovative, a piece featuring an exciting voiceover by senior violinist Kaiser Meng called “Santa the Barbarian: Snowpocalypse,” and after a few technical difficulties were solved, the orchestra played this vivid and dramatic piece with lots of intensity from start to finish.

String Orchestra violist sophomore Thomas Le enjoyed how spirited the pieces were, and felt that getting to shout out loud for the final piece helped fill his, ”kid-self’s heart full of love.”

Premier Orchestra cellist sophomore Derek Wang was also very inspired by String’s set of music, and he felt that his favorite part of the concert was “when Kaiser Meng was on the microphone doing his voiceover.  It was a different kind of feeling, and it was really fun.”

Following String was Concert Orchestra, keeping the holiday spirits up and raising them even higher!  They started off with “A Shakespeare Song Suite,” an orchestral work with five different short parts; each taken from songs and vocabulary used in some of Shakespeare’s plays.  These pieces ranged from warm and open, like in “II. Under the Greenwood Tree,” as well as intense and delightful like in “VII. The Ratcatcher.”  Their final piece was a traditional Jewish piece called “Fanfare for the Festival of Lights,” with vibrant and playful tones to celebrate and honor the holiday of Hanukkah, as well as to celebrate the wonderful music heard at the concert.

The final interval of the concert commenced with Symphony Orchestra’s arrival onto the stage to play the final orchestra-only piece.  Their performance of “IV. Adagietto” from Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony spanned almost 11 minutes and truly conveyed its loving and heartfelt message to the audience.  Arcadia’s choir and wind ensemble students then made their way to the stage for the concert’s final three pieces and to join Symphony Orchestra.  They began with “Angels We Have Heard On High,” a traditional Christmas carol, “I Will Light Candles This Christmas,” a poetic and hopeful piece with a very beautiful and polished oboe solo, and “Theme from Elf.” The finale piece included the playful feature of kazoos from the choir and incorporated melodies from many other well-known holiday songs.  After a series of fun and bouncy notes, the final piece left the audience on a very cheerful and high note!

“I really liked the addition of choir and band,” says Symphony violinist sophomore Jennifer Liu,” as it creates a much more festive and united feel to the music.”  This concert served as an amazing reminder of the power that collaboration and working together can bring when different ensembles come together and play their hearts out.

As the final note faded and a vigorous applause erupted from the audience, the 2025 Winter Concert proved itself to be an exciting and heartfelt celebration of the holiday season and of the effort put into the concert by Arcadia’s music students. An emotional and very memorable send-off before the year ends, the concert was a perfect way to introduce the new year with happiness, camaraderie, and, of course, the love of music.