The Andrews University Orchestra performed its spring concert at the Howard Performing Arts Center (HPAC) on Thursday, April 9. The concert featured works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Camille Saint-Saëns, student composer Yohance Mack and George Bizet, and was a thrilling way for the musicians to end the year together.
The first piece on the program was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op.18, performed by pianist Ben Loenser (senior, music). Loenser, one of the winners of the 2024 Young Artist Competition, said that this piece has been one of his favorites since high school. He said, “I love the concerto for its combination of sweeping, lyrical melodies and exciting virtuosic passages,” adding that “Getting the opportunity to perform it has been a lifelong dream of mine.”
Violinist Drusilla Apola (senior, speech pathology) said that her favorite piece of the evening was the Rachmaninoff. “I like the fact that [the soloist and the orchestra] bounce off of each other…the orchestra has a lot of times where we play the melody, and it sounds very grand!”
Another violinist, Andrea De Leon (freshman, education), agreed that the Rachmaninoff was a highlight of the evening. She explained that performing it with Loenser was a full-circle moment.
“My favorite piece for a very long time has been this Rachmaninoff. When I was a freshman [at Andrews Academy], Ben Loenser played one movement of it for our Concerto Night, and it was easily my favorite piece that we played in those four years. So I’m really excited to now be a freshman in college and to play all three movements,” said De Leon.
After a brief intermission, the orchestra played Camille Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre. Marc Élysée, the director of the AUSO, explained from the HPAC stage that the piece begins with 12 strikes on the harp, representing the 12 strokes of midnight. At that point, the skeletons of the underworld begin to move and wake up, providing a “...stark reminder of the fact that there is nothing too sure about our lives right now. Death can happen at any time. [The piece is] a way for humans to learn how to cope with the end of life,” said Élysée.
The part of the concertmaster, played by violinist Mailyn Iribar, represented the devil by utilizing the interval of a tritone (in other words, a tense, suspenseful interval that was considered unholy by the church because of its devilish quality), commonly used in music for the purpose of creating an “evil” sound. The rest of the orchestra, representing living humans, plays a simple waltz-like melody when they enter, creating the illusion of a dance between the living and the dead.
Claire Yang (senior, speech pathology) stated, “Danse Macabre was one of my favorite pieces we’ve played as an orchestra this past year. The energetic and intense character of the piece and the continuous musical conversation that occurs between the various sections of the orchestra made it so exciting to play!”
As the orchestra played “The Movie” by student composer Yohance Mack, the audience watched a brief video summary of the AUSO’s spring break tour to California—a small gesture to thank the generous donors who helped pay for the trip. The minute-and-a-half-long piece, complete with an exciting opening and an emotional end, sounds like something straight from Hollywood. Mack’s piece has additional meaning to the AUSO as they performed it many times for their audiences in California.
To close the evening, the students performed George Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1. “Carmen is the most well-known French opera,” explained Élysée from the stage. “The story is about Carmen, a strong-willed and independent woman with great qualities, but on fire in all kinds of ways. On the other hand, you have Don José, a very noble military officer. Both eventually feel an attraction to one another. But sometimes those things do not go as planned,” he said, refusing to spoil the end of the story. The orchestra played a total of six short movements, including a Spanish dance titled “Aragonaise,” a march representing Don José’s military called “Les Dragons d'Alcala,” and lastly, “Les Toréadors,” the most famous movement of the work, which represents the bullfighters of Spain.
Though this concert was the final orchestra-only performance of the school year, the AUSO is looking forward to accompanying the University Choirs for their Stephen Zork Reunion Concert, titled “How Can I Keep from Singing.” The reunion concert will take place on April 24 at 7:30 p.m., and will be your last chance to see these musicians perform until the 2026-2027 school year. More information can be found on the Howard Performing Arts Center’s website.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.