On March 3, Sage Creek’s music department presented its spring concert, “Blooming Brilliant” in the Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. Tickets were available for purchase at sagecreekmusic.org and cost $10 for general admission and $7 for students with ASB stickers and senior citizens. “Blooming Brilliant” featured all of Sage Creek music department’s groups – including string orchestra, chamber orchestra, jazz combo and wind ensemble.

Sage Creek’s music department had three “model Bobcats” for the month of February: Nathan Carlo Lugtu from chamber orchestra, Ayden McDaniel from string orchestra and Quinn Pileski from wind ensemble. The spring concert was also packed full of student music leadership consisting of Sonje Bangal, Anderson Bishop, Colin Doherty, Veena Dorazio, Ethan Fairclough, Cole Flanegan, Shad Holdaway, Kaitlyn Jensen, Drew Limberg, Luke Little, Carissa Lu, Ayden McDaniel, Arianna Sharifi and Leila Felicity Young.

Orchestra Co-President Arianna Sharifi works hard behind the scenes from coordinating what music will be played at concerts to checking in with all the different music groups performing.

“I’m most proud of the students’ ability to come together with their shared love of music and passion to really give it their all when learning,” Sharifi said. “It’s really amazing to see everyones’ mindset shift to working as a team and getting that final product up there.” 

The performance was split into two parts, and the first half of the concert was dedicated to chamber groups. 

The show began with an opening of “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns and arranged by Isxno, played by violinist Dodi Francis and harpist Catalina Francis.

The second performance was “Themes from an American Quartet” by Antonín Dovořák, arranged by Jamin Hoffman and performed by Veena Dorazio, Ethan Luong, Maximus Marchi and Kiran Musso on the violin, Anderson Bishop and Nathan Carlo Lugtu on the viola, Colin Doherty and Shad Holdaway on the cello and Luke Little on the bass.

The jazz combo, composed of Sonje Bangal on the tenor sax, Andrew Roelen on trumpet, Ethan Fairclough on guitar, Luke Little on bass and Jake Bujewski on drums played “Joshua” by Victor Feldman and Miles Davis. 

The fourth staging was a solo, with Lily Rodriguez playing the harp to “Un Vals Para Soñar” by Alfredo Rolando Ortiz.

Next up was a performance of Disney’s “Tale as Old as Time” from Beauty and the Beast by Alan Menkin and Howard Ashman, arranged by Juliana Quiñones. This large performance had Abe Ibañez, Cheng Jin, Geyci Laura Paredes, Bella Karam, Max Lopez, Zoe Martin, Michelle Montesinos, Carlos Resendiz, Isabel Shim and Lauren Shim on the violin, Kailee Choong playing the viola and Kaitlyn Jensen, Hailey Lunceford and Sophie Martin on the cello.

The sixth showing was “Pink Panther” by Henry Mancini and arranged by Juliana Quiñones. Advaith Akella and Hunter Trinh played the clarinet, Carolin Belke and Daniel Acevedo played the alto sax, Kyan Chasin was on the horn, Aayush Chintalapati was on the euphonium and Charlie Day played the drums. 

Part one of “Blooming Brilliant” ended with cello choir: Kaitlyn Jensen, Ivyn Tran, Shad Holdaway, Lenae Shin, Colin Doherty, Tyler Hindman, Hailey Lunceford, Ayden McDaniel, Jordyn Sigler, Arianna Sharifi, Alex Castano, Sophie Martin and Ivan Sakhranov playing “La Vie en Rose” by Édith Piaf and Louiguy, arranged by Bob Smolenski. 

The second part of the show started off with two performances by jazz combo. They played “Hey, Lock!” by Eddie Davis and Johnny Griffin and “Softly as the Morning Sunrise” by Signmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II.

String orchestra, made up of Abe Ibañez, Geyci Laura Paredes, Michelle Montesinos and Carlos Resendiz on violin I, Cheng Jin, Bella Karam, Maximus Lopez, Zoe Martin, Isabel Shim, Lauren Shim and Alex Wagner on violin II, Adrian Byon, Kailee Choong, Alexie Farinella, Kate Halloran, Bella Keough, Luke Mooney and Anaïs Timm playing the viola, Alex Castano, Tyler Hindman, Kaitlyn Jensen, Hailey Lunceford, Ayden McDaniel, Ivan Sakhranov, Arianna Sharifi, Lenae Shin and Jordyn Sigler on cello, Harmony Lawler, Sophie Martin and Mariano Resendiz Bryant playing the bass and Catalina Francis and Lily Rodriguez playing the harp performed “Waltz No. 2” by Dmitri Shostakovich and arranged by Paul Lavender. 

This performance included soloists by Kailee Choong on viola and cello section leader Kaitlyn Jensen on cello.

“I’m really proud of how well organized it was,” Jensen said about the show. “I’m proud of all of the work everyone put into their groups. I think that showed in the quality of the performances.”

Following string orchestra was wind ensemble, fabricated of Emily Chang, Madison Hunsberger and Cooper Hurt on the flute, Advaith Akella, Carissa Lu, Luis Melling and Hunter Trinh playing the clarinet, Daniel Acevedo, Carolin Belke, Caleb Brewer, Logan Hunter and Drew Limberg on the alto saxophone, Sonje Bangal playing the tenor sax, Saul Salas Diaz on the baritone sax, Kimberly Alamilla, Paul Ekstrom, Cole Flanegan and Aaron Pascal playing the trumpet, Ozzie Arteaga, Kyan Chasin, Henry Davison and Quinn Pileski on the horn, Galen Kelly, Ty Kovacevich and Brody Salbato trombone, Aayush Chintalapati and Jake Loofbourrow playing the euphonium, Makoto Kaburagi on the tuba and Charles Day, Blake Hafner and Zach Whitlock playing the percussion.  

Wind ensemble played “Amazing Grace” by Frank Ticheli with a solo by Drew Limberg on the alto saxophone.

Last up was the chamber orchestra that played two outro pieces. Chamber orchestra includes Belle Dolan-Carleton, Veena Dorazio and Maximus Marchi on violin I, Dodi Francis, Ethan Luong, Kiran Musson, Jazmine Villa and Leila Felicity Young playing violin II, Anderson Bishop, Heather Green, Nathan Carlo Lugtu and Mia Tzavaras playing the viola, Colin Doherty, Jason Fu and Shad Holdaway on the cello, Ethan Fairclough and Luke Little playing the bass and Jonah Hacker on guitar.     

The first piece, “Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 20” by Edward Elgar, had three parts to the performance: “Allegro piacevole,” “Larghetto” and “Allegretto.”

The ending performance, “Concerto La Primavera (Spring), Op. 8 No. 1” by Antonio Vivaldi, also contained three portions: “Allegro,” “Largo e pianissimo sempre “and “Allegro.” Throughout the performance, Veena Dorazio played as the principal solo violin. In the opening “Allegro,” Maximus Marchi, Ethan Luong and Shad Holdaway each had solos and in the ending “Allegro,” Belle Dolan-Carleton and Shad Holdaway had solos as well. 

“They are always surprising me,” Sage Creek music teacher Juliana Quiñones said. “They are always picking music that is harder than it has to be and I love them for going for that.” 

On April 6, Sage Creek’s VAPA department will host their first ArtFest since the COVID-19 pandemic at Sage Creek High School from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The event will have jazz combo performing, an art exhibition, performances in theater, dance and music, a living art show, food trucks, a drum circle, photo stations, Bobcat Cubs and Sage Creek Dance Company, wheel throwing demos, sidewalk chalk, interactive art activities, face painting, merchandise, Genius Project and SCHS club booths and more.