By: Kate Smith
Salisbury High School’s music association is made up of a variety of talented students that range from freshmen to seniors who have a passion for music. Some students have been involved in Salisbury music for all four years of their high school career, possibly further back, though others haven’t.
Current musicians enrolled at Salisbury have been practicing their music several days a week in preparation for the upcoming winter concert. Live performances of catchy winter songs are scheduled to take place on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022 at 7:00PM in the high school’s auditorium. Admission is free of charge and anyone is welcome to swing by for an eventful night of music.
According to Salisbury High School’s music director, Ms. Rachel Reinecke, “concerts take place at the same time every year. Desired performance times have fallen into place based on experiences and what accommodates the school schedule best.”
Students usually begin preparing for live performances as early as September. A variety of songs are practiced for several months until show day. Based on a students’ interests, they either play a choral, instrumental, or both roles in the show, so keep an eye out for constant recurring faces throughout the show.
When planning what songs Ms. Reinecke wants her students to perform at concerts, she looks for songs that are “appropriate for each performing group, both in difficulty and to set the appropriate tone for the concert.” Ms. Reinecke “selects music of varying styles and modes.”
Amelia Swoyer, a sophomore at SHS, takes part in Jazz Band, Concert Band, and Marching Band. Amelia has played the trumpet throughout all of her years of being involved. When asked how long Amelia has been involved in Salisbury music, she said “I’ve been in Concert Band since 4th grade, Jazz since 6th, and Marching since 7th,” said Swoyer.
Between concert band and jazz band’s winter selections, Amelia is more excited to perform jazz bands selections at the concert. “I’m really excited for our Jazz show since we have good songs. Concert Band has good songs too, but I prefer Jazz,” said Swoyer.
When asked what Amelia’s favorite part of being a Salisbury musician is, she said “my favorite part of being a Salisbury musician is being so close with all the people since there aren’t a lot of us. I would consider all of us a family,” said Swoyer.
Another one of Salisbury’s musicians, a junior at SHS, Laurans Trinth, participates in Concert Chorus, Marching Band, Jazz Band, and Concert Band. Laurans plays the tenor saxophone and is a baritone.
When Laurans was asked why he takes a liking to music, he said “the process of making something out of nothing is very nice.”
Trinth also said, “Salisbury, too, is a very nice experience because some schools don’t have that jazz band experience.”
When asked about how Laurans is feeling about the winter concert, he said “I am excited for the winter concert because I believe there are a lot of cool songs out there. Jazz band has a really nice boss up tune as well as concert band. There’s some very nice boss up tunes and chorus has been keeping up the good work. There’s some good tunes there.”
Ms. Reinecke believes that the purpose of arranging a musical concert is to educate and entertain the community. She also believes that “by having an event that is open to the community, we have an authentic, real life experience.”
When Ms. Reinecke was asked what was next for the Salisbury musicians after the winter concert, she said, “students will have the opportunity to sign up for potential selection into the Lehigh County Honors Festivals. These are music festivals (band and chorus separately) that combine students from the public and private schools in Lehigh County to learn music and present a concert. Salisbury is hosting Lehigh County Chorus in January. Band is being hosted by Northern Lehigh High School in February. We are scheduled to go to the elementary school and airport (logistics still being worked out) at the end of December. Music in Our Schools Month (March) is always a good time. We will give another public performance in the Spring (May 2) and will likely have performers at the art show in May. The elementary students are scheduled to come visit the high school in May to hear a concert and see the art show.”
The hopes of both Salisbury’s musicians and Ms. Reinecke is that the audience will take note of the time and effort that is invested into each performer to prepare them to get up on stage and present to the audience what they have learned. Additionally, they anticipate for the audience to learn to value music performances and continue supporting music throughout their lives.
Leave a Reply