This week marked a momentous occasion for this singing school: On Thursday, May 20, Roxbury Latin hosted its first live musical performance in 14 months. On a beautiful, sunny evening, outside in the Smith Arts Center Courtyard, guests sat—spread out, in chairs on the lawn—and enjoyed performances by students in Class VI through Class I, instrumentalists and singers, performing a range of music that they’ve been practicing, in person and via Zoom, throughout this pandemic year.

View the entirety of this spring’s outdoor concert, and read the complete program below.

Chamber Ensembles
Howard Frazin, director

Piano Trio in F Major, Op. 39, No. 1

1. Allegro con brio

Julius Klengel (1859-1933)

   Max Kesselheim, violin                                                                    

   Kenneth Foster, cello

   Dennis Jin, piano

Recorder Sonata in F Minor                      

1. Allegro

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

   Marc Albrechtskirchinger, recorder

   Simon Albrechtskirchinger, guitar

Violin Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023             

1. Gigue                

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

   Liam Finn, violin

   Michael Allen, double bass

   Darian Estrada, piano

Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60                

   III. Andante

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

   Justin Yamaguchi, violin

   Eli Mamuya, viola

   Justin Shaw, cello

   Theo Teng, piano

Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40

1. Allegro con brio

Brahms

   Daniel Berk, horn

   Alex Yin, violin

   Heshie Liebowitz, piano

 

Latonics
Rob Opdycke, director

Eric Auguste, Eli Bailit, Daniel Berk, Ben Brasher, Ben Chang-Holt,

Ryan Frigerio, Aydan Gedeon-Hope, Heshie Liebowitz, Ryan Lim,

Sam Morris-Kliment, Emmanuel Nwodo, Ethan Phan, Ale Philippides,

Tommy Reichard, Theo Teng

Loch Lomond

Traditional Scottish Air

arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Daniel Berk, tenor

Lighthouse

Ernie Halter (b. 1974)

arr. Sandy Fleming ’07 (b. 1988) & Rob Opdycke (b. 1976)

Ben Chang-Holt, Emmanuel Nwodo,   

Ale Philippides, solos
 

Guitar Ensemble
Dr. Andrés Amitai Wilson, director

Vishnu Emani, Tait Oberg, Nick Raciti, guitar

Jack McCarthy, bass; Joseph Wang, drums

Superstition

Stevie Wonder (b. 1950)

Original arrangement by the group

 

Jazz Combo
David Leach ’09, director

Quinn Donovan, trumpet; Tommy Reichard, alto & tenor sax

Ben Chang-Holt, piano; Ale Philippides, guitar

Anton Rabkin, bass; Joseph Wang, drums

Lonnie’s Lament

John Coltrane (1926-1967)

Darwin Derby

Vulfpeck

arr. D. Leach (b. 1990)

Andrew Gu of Class V was recently selected and recorded for NPR’s nationally-renowned From The Top program—a premier music radio show, which celebrates the stories and talents of classically-trained young musicians. The episode featuring Andrew’s performance—Show 393, with host Peter Dugan—aired nationally during the week of December 14. Andrew performed Beethoven’s Sonata No. 7 in D Major; he was the youngest of the five teenage musicians featured on the episode, which also included saxophonists and violinists—hailing from Chicago, Illinois to Underhill, Vermont—and performances of pieces by Stravinsky and Reena Esmail. Listen to and view Andrew’s performance—as well as the rest of the episode—here.

Andrew, who has earned other accolades and honors for his skills as a pianist, started piano lessons with his mother, Helen Jung, and continued his studies with Alexander Korsantia and Hitomi Koyama. Andrew made his orchestral debut at age eight, performing Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in D major at the Music Fest Perugia, Sala dei Notari, Italy in 2015.           

Several Roxbury Latin student-musicians have been featured performers on From the Top over the years. From the Top is a national, non-profit organization that supports, develops, and shares young people’s artistic voices and stories, providing young musicians with performance opportunities in premier concert venues across the country; national exposure to over a half million listeners on its weekly NPR show; and more than $3 million in scholarships since 2005.

The chamber trio of Daniel Berk (I), Heshie Liebowitz (II), and Alex Yin (II) entered this year’s international Great Composers Competition having never played together as a trio before. Yet this summer—looking for opportunities to make music with others, safely—the three boys wanted to fill the musical gap they were feeling on the heels of the spring’s quarantine. Initially, their plan was simply to play together, but when the opportunity arose to participate in the online competition, they took it.

The Great Composers Competition is a series of international music competitions for young performers organized in categories—for instrumentalists (piano, strings, winds, percussion), singers (opera, sacred music, art song, musical theatre), and chamber groups.

Daniel (French horn) plays with Alex (violin) outside of school, and Heshie (piano) had performed with Alex before; each admired the others’ musical skills. Though repertoire that involves the horn is limited, they selected Brahms’s Horn Trio, Op. 40. When they were pleased with how well the piece turned out, Heshie took the initiative of submitting the recording on the group’s behalf.

Knowing they needed large spaces in which to practice and perform while maintaining a safe distance, the boys were lucky to secure rehearsal space first in an auditorium on the Brandeis campus, and second, at a new Steinway piano retailer showroom in Newton, prior to the store’s official opening.

“This was my first time playing in a chamber trio,” says Daniel. “As Alex says, there’s not much to play for horns, but this piece is a hallmark of the repertoire, and it put me in the hot seat. I wasn’t used to minimal rehearsal—we only had two rehearsals before we recorded—so that was a new experience, just getting the music and rehearsing on our own. We put it all together more quickly than any of us would have liked, but we were really pleased with how it came out.”

All three boys have been playing their instruments since they were very young—Heshie playing piano since before he can even remember. “When it comes to chamber music, what I enjoy most is playing with other people,” he says. “It’s fun to play with your friends, first of all, but it’s also rewarding because you get to explore with different sounds that you can’t make by yourself on your own instrument.”

“One thing I love about violin is the flexibility of the instrument,” says Alex. “You have so many options available to you. For instance, I can play solo music, I can play chamber music, or I can play in an orchestra.”

“Horn and brass are pretty different from other musical families, because they rely a lot less on finger technique and a lot more on trusting yourself and taking leaps of faith,” adds Daniel. “It feels like more of a mental game than a physical one. So when I play with instruments that demand a lot more technical skill—like piano and violin—it’s awesome to help produce that contrast of the long tone of the horn—which is not extremely complicated—with the sounds of the piano and the violin, which are just going a mile a minute, lightning fast. That combination of sounds is just a beautiful thing to help create.”

Now that the boys know what they can create together as a chamber trio, they hope to play together more in the future. The Brahms piece they performed has four movements, and the boys played the middle two. “The most iconic parts are actually movements one and four,” says Daniel, “and we were hoping to save them for when we can play in person together, and perform in person—hopefully on the Roxbury Latin stage!—as well.”

Watch the boys’ prize-winning performance, in full.