Seven Lakes High School

Orchestras

News

News

Lyrica Orchestra Earns Commended Winner Accolade through the Foundation of Music Education 

We are proud to announce that our third orchestra, Lyrica, also earned Commended Winner through the Foundation of Music Education. The Citation of Excellence project seeks to recognize and award outstanding achievement in performance by non-varsity high school and middle school bands and orchestras. A unique competitive environment is created which allows ensembles to compare their performance quality to other outstanding non-varsity ensembles. The top 25% of entrants are recognized as Citation Winners, with the second 25% named as Commended Winners.

2024-2025 Audition Results

There were so many outstanding performances that we heard from our new and returning students. The directors were very pleased with the level of preparation and performance.

You may have not made it into the group that you auditioned for, but please know that all audition results are final. All students are auditioned at the end of each school year, so you will have another opportunity to move to another ensemble for the 2025-2026 school year.

Thanks to all of our students who auditioned! Audition results can be viewed here.

Have a wonderful summer!

Masterworks – February 3, 2024 at 7:00pm

Click here to purchase tickets.

Our biennial performance featuring the combined forces of the Seven Lakes Fine Arts Department, Masterworks 2024 will be held this February!

This year’s theme, “Reimagined” features music from the ages that have been reconceptualized or recreated in new forms and ideas. Works from composers Heed, Abing, and Perapaskero will be performed, in addition to the groundbreaking “Of Our New Day Begun” by composer Omar Thomas.

The anchor of the concert is Michael J. Trotta’s “Magnificat.” Commissioned by a consortium of 8 choirs for simultaneous nationwide premieres during the 2019-2020 season, Michael John Trotta’s Magnificat is a 40-minute work for choir, soprano and bass soli, and orchestra. This seven-movement work delivers a tapestry of melodic richness that powerfully portrays the anticipation of the wonder and mystery of the birth of a savior.

Conductor-composer Michael J. Trotta will be in residence and conducting his Magnificat.

“Fueled by a passion for combining tradition and innovation, American composer Michael John Trotta creates music that resonates with modern audiences around the world.”

Segue

SLORK Wars Episode II: Attack of the Violas

Normally each year, the Seven Lakes Orchestras Officer team makes homemade videos that entertain our students, with one of them being the end of year officer skit. This year’s communication team worked with our students all year long to plan and produce a 30 minute long thrilling Star Wars styled movie combining live action with animation like never seen before!

Featuring intense fight scenes, epic space battles, orchestral inside jokes and more, this is something you must check out!

THE AWESOME 2022 SPRING CONCERT!

Our students and audience had a blast at the ambitious, video game themed Spring Concert, full of funny skits such as the concert etiquette video, a mixture of game machinima given life by Derek Chen and his team of talented voice actors and player controllers (see below), interactive performances, like a sing-along of the beloved Minecraft parody song “Fallen Kingdom”, and an amazing end of year Star Wars parody movie shown at our informal banquet!

Our students performed songs from the soundtracks of some of this generation’s favorite games, recordings of which can be seen on our Youtube channel!

The Camerata, Phil 2 and Phil 7 combined orchestras performed the following pieces with interactive elements:

  • The Halo Theme by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori
  • Korobeiniki (The Tetris Theme), a traditional Russian Folk Song arranged by Timothy Rohwer while faculty and student Jasmine Wang competed against each other on screen
  • Finally, a beloved Minecraft parody of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”, Fallen Kingdom, by Jordan Maron and arranged by Adrian Sisso complete with an audience sing-along led by choir student Tanner Scott!

Our Piano and Harp Studio performed the following nostalgic pieces:

  • Sweden, a peaceful track by C418 from the videogame Minecraft accompanied by a video officer Derek Chen created as a love letter to the beloved game
  • The Super Mario Bros. Themes (Konda/Guxholli) accompanied by faculty member Mr. Jacobi playing the game on screen! More amazing than Mr. Jacobi’s epic gameplay was that our pianists Parham Vakili and Daniela Caballero were so synced to the game that every single sound effect could be heard from the piano!
  • Morpheus, a somber piece composed by Cambiata cellist Nikhil Murali and performed by pianists Victor Liu and Melody Yang!

Up next was our Lyrica orchestra with the following video game pieces:

  • The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Medley (Kondo/Arr. Frias)
  • “Greenpath” from the atmospheric adventure game Hollow Knight by Christopher Larkin and arranged by Lyrica violist Darsh Shah
  • Finally, “Hopes and Dreams” and “SAVE the world”, two iconic finale pieces composed by Toby Fox for the hit RPG Undertale arranged by Andrés Alejandro Rojas!

Our Symphony Strings orchestra decided to focus more on the “Life” aspect of our concert theme with the following pieces:

  • “Never Ending Performance” from the adventure game Genshin Impact by Yu-Peng Chen arranged by student Owen Christian T Capule
  • “Merry-Go-Round of Life”, an iconic waltz from Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle by Joe Hisaishi arranged by Jen Mathers
  • “One Hand, One Heart” from West Side Story (Bernstein/Arr. Naughtin)
  • Finally, “First Time in a Lifetime”, a world premiere by composer Joshua Idio!

The recordings of the pieces can be found on our Youtube channel, and linked below is the hilarious concert etiquette video!

Cadenza

CODA

“A closing passage generally added to the end of a composition to provide a strong conclusion to the work, giving the piece a grander sense of finality”