by Ariel Jones-Mollod, fifth-grader, with reporting help from Michelle Ginouves

Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz unless otherwise noted
 

Sylvia Ren plays “Sawmill Creek” on her clarinet.

Maggie Gill (left) and Caroline Hentz sing a duet of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me.”

Joey D’Amore plays “Ixtapa” on his electric guitar.

Alexaleigh Colon tests her microphone before performing.

Bach and Beethoven have met their match. On Monday, March 22, fifth-graders performed the Nature’s Classroom Fundraiser Concert. Nature’s Classroom is a program where fifth-graders go away for a week and learn all types of nature and educational skills in a camp-like setting. The fifth-graders have been participating in fundraisers to reduce the cost, and this one was the best so far.

The concert was a success. Attendance was far better than expected on a rainy Monday night, with standing room only. The wide variety of performances made the concert very entertaining. From rap songs to classical music, this group did it all. It was fun to be in the audience, as Bailey Bourgeois can confirm.

“Yes it was [fun to watch]. They all have great talent,” Bailey said. She added that the audience had a blast, but the performers seemed to have the most fun.

Caroline Hentz, who sang a beautiful a cappella version of Katrina and the Waves’ “Walkin’ on Sunshine” said after the performance, “It felt like I was walking on sunshine.”

The moods created for the audience were different for each of the performers. There was the humorous anti-bullying rap composed and performed by Ben Siddiqui, Noah Dyer, and Nick Evans. Other music was more serious, such as Eva ‘Tsun-Tsun’ Xue, who performed her own beautiful composition on piano.

The performers should get a lot of credit for their courage. As Audrey Hettinger put it, “I was proud to see how much guts they had.” Two singers, Maggie Gill and Alexaleigh Colon, had never sung solo in front of an audience before and confessed to being very nervous before the event.

Many of the musicians have been playing their instruments for less than six months in band, yet there were many confident performances, such as “Sakura,” a Japanese folk song, performed on flute by Liz Polimou and Maddie Steele. There were two different versions of “Regal March” performed by Isaac Abouf, Will Day, Kee Hwang Lee, Rainier Yano, and Thomas Bearthoud, Joey Calabresi, and William Zhao.

Other musicians who have been playing for a while showed their talents, such as Joey D’Amore’s electric guitar solo “Ixtapa” and Natalie O’Leary’s impressive “Violin Concerto in G Major.” Before the concert Natalie was asked if she was nervous, and the immediate answer was “No!”

The concert netted a profit of more than $800. During the intermission fifth-graders sold pink cupcakes, marbled brownies, and homemade whoopee pies. The audience devoured most of it, leaving only a few cookies left on platters for a second helping after the concert.

The kids had a fun time performing; most of them stayed afterward to joke around and congratulate each other. Some kids were singing and dancing around until 9 p.m., when it was definitely time to get some beauty sleep.

The most important thing about the concert was the team effort. Almost all fifth-graders participated in some way, from performing and selling refreshments, to taking pictures of the event. Many parents volunteered to help out, adding about 100 helpers. Wei Zhuang and Marisa Steele, the organizers of the event, commented on the wonderful team effort during the show.

Watch out Taylor Swift—these kids have talent, and they’ve made their debut.

 

Kee Hwang Lee warms up on his trombone. (Photo by student photographer)	Rebekah Lindsey and Natalie O’Leary play Corelli’s “Prelude and Dance” as part of a string quintet.
From left: Noah Dyer, Nick Evans, and Ben Siddiqui perform an original composition, “Bully in Da Halls.”	Sadie Flannagan documents the night as a student photographer.