Music department survives and thrives in ‘March Madness’

“I will bet anybody five dollars that at the end of the first movement [of Maslanka’s ‘Give Us This Day’ Symphony], somebody is going to clap,” musical director Michael Boitz declared to the Symphonic Wind Ensemble the period before the March 7 performance.

At that time, junior clarinetist Joowon Lee rose up from his chair and took the bet. 

“I thought that it was a good opportunity to jip my teacher of five dollars,” Lee said later. “I knew that the audience would be silent if we played really well, so I was more concerned about the quality of the music rather than the five dollars [I won].”  

The bet between Lee and Boitz is only one example of the many experiences created during the start of the music department’s concert season. 

While basketball fans energetically watch “March Madness” NCAA basketball on TV, Boitz and other music teachers prepare for the concert season, a large portion of which is focused in March. 

Boitz said that most of the music events, which last until June, are centered around March because the music department needs to work with other programs, such as the spring musical, for available space in the McAfee Theater.

On March 1, March 8 and March 15, several solo and ensemble groups from Saratoga performed at the annual CMEA Solo and Ensemble Festival at San Jose State University. Five soloists, sophomores Michael Okuno, Suneel Balkhale, Uday Singh and Katie McLaughlin and freshman Theo Luan, won command performances, the highest awards given at the festival.

On March 14 and 15, Saratoga featured six orchestras and two bands in the CMEA Band and Orchestra Rated Festival, held at Saratoga High, along with the bands and orchestras of Homestead, Monta Vista and Lynbrook High Schools and Redwood Middle School. 

Two of the March concerts, which happened on March 7-8, featured two winners of the schoolwide concerto competition held last December, junior violist Linus Lu and senior clarinetist Leo Kim. Both concerts were met with McAfee-filling crowds and positive reception for the soloists.

The other two winners, senior euphonium player Lauren Casey-Clyde and junior cellist Kevin Lee, will be featured in concerts in May.

“I feel a bunch of excitement [about soloing with the band],” Casey-Clyde said. “I've never soloed with an ensemble before so it’s going to be a new experience. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to sharing my music with a big audience and sharing the gorgeous sound of euphonium.”

In addition, tryouts for the the school’s top band, Symphonic Wind Ensemble (SWE), were held from the beginning of the last week of March to the end of the first week of April. Tryouts for the top orchestras, String Orchestra and Saratoga Strings, were held in the middle of March.

Sophomore euphonium player Ellie Lee, who is trying out for SWE, hopes that her painstaking efforts for the audition will come to fruit and help her into SWE.

“[My private lesson teacher] says the best way to cure nerves is through preparation,” Ellie said. “I have been working really hard this year to improve, so I'm going to do my best and what happens [next will be all right].”

The California All-State choirs performed on March 22, featuring six students from Saratoga. Seniors My-Lan Le and Christine Zhang made the Mixed Honor Choir, while seniors Emily Chiang and Nina Jayshankar and sophomores Isha Mangal and Ankitha Sarvesh were in the Women’s Honor Choir.

Boitz, even after managing the music department past the month of March, said that he isn’t worn down because the work required for the future of the department really never ends. 

“Right now, I feel that I am never finishing one project without starting or working on others,” Boitz said. 

Yet, according to Boitz, being busy has its perks for teachers.

“Even as we are finishing this month, my mind is thinking about [the events in May and June],” Boitz said. “I’m [always] thinking about what’s next. As students come into [the class to work on the next event], we, as teachers and directors, have to prepare to make it work.”

And the bet? “It was so set up,” replied a smirking Boitz.