Blach’s Honors Orc

Jisoo Hur

Orchestra. Schools who qualify for the festival spend three nights and four days in Chicago to immerse themselves in music and sight see Chicago’s wonders.

Blach’s Honors Orchestra earned its place in the event as the only middle school to take part

Blach Intermediate School’s Honors Orchestra flew out of state to Chicago, Illinois from April 15th to April 18th to perform in the Festival of Gold.

The orchestra had to commit hours to the festival

The Chicago Festival of Gold is an exclusive and unique event held at the acclaimed Chicago Symphony

The opportunity to attend is only presented to orchestras that have demonstrated top level performances. Blach’s Honors Orchestra earned its place in the event, the only middle school to take part, after their concert in the Anaheim Heritage Festival of 2022.

For an event so special, the orchestra had to commit hours into the festival. Mr. Lewis, the music program teacher and director of the trip, had the orchestra practice the chosen pieces from the beginning of the school year: a piece from Vivaldi, a piece from Mozart, and a piece from Beethoven He also held weekend practices on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 to 12 Soloists practiced separately a few times as well. Kaitlyn Yoon, the cello soloist, states, “But as the concert became more imminent, the anxiety started to build up. As we waited backstage, all I could think about was how not to mess up. But after the performance, I felt a huge wave of relief.”

Kang, a solo violist said. “I was half asleep during the performance.”

The three classical pieces that the orchestra performed were not easy pieces. Mr. Lewis chose the pieces because he wanted the students “to be challenged” and show the judges that Blach students could understand the music. It was not so shallow as to simply play the notes correctly; they had to learn and apply the different techniques of each piece.

“The last concert took place at night, so all of us were rather

On the other hand, Nishi Viswanathan, one of the two solo violinists, was excited. “It’s a big opportunity to play in a nice concert hall.”

Many of the other orchestras that they were competing against were seniors from private schools, while some even traveled across the US to prepare for the festival.

“As Blach, we were a