The southeast quadrant orchestra concert was held in the Mountlake Terrace High School gym on March 4 at 7 p.m., featuring orchestras from Edmonds School District (ESD) elementary, middle and high schools.

The sixth grade combined orchestras started the night off with the piece Simple Hoedown by J. Krug, followed by Loch Lomond, arranged by N. Klauss. The musicians then finished their set with “Dragonhunter” by Richard Meyer.

This orchestra was made up of musicians from the Edmonds School District elementary schools, including Brier, Terrace Park, Cedar Way, Hazelwood and Mountlake Terrace.

After their performance, the seventh grade orchestra from Brier Terrace Middle School played two pieces, one entitled Gargoyles and the other, a middle school classic, Russian Sailors’ Dance composed by R. Giliere and arranged by Caponegro.

Then it was time for the eighth graders to show what they could do. Their performance was arguably the most enjoyable of the night, provoking laughter in the audience.

Their performance began with the well known theme from Pirates of the Caribbean, then went on to their final song, Remote Control. Throughout this piece, one musician hit the triangle every few measures of the song. When she did this, the style of music the orchestra was playing changed.

At one point, they didn’t play at all and instead they simply air-bowed, earning a few chuckles from the audience. The concept of this piece was the idea of being able to change a live orchestra with the click of a button as if they were on TV or on the radio.

The part of this performance that really got everybody in the audience’s attention was when the student hit the triangle and paused the orchestra. She then got up out of her seat and got a bag of Doritos and a bottle of water.

After she was done with her quick snack break, she unpaused the musicians, only to pause them a few measures later so she could take another sip of her water.

The MTHS concert orchestra followed the middle schoolers nicely with their two pieces, Tango Espressivo and Bacchanale from ‘Samson and Delilah.’ Afterward, the MTHS Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Jig from St. Paul’s Suite, composed by Gustav Holst, and Drifen (pronounced driven), composed by S. Atwell.

Finally, it was time for the finale. All the musicians in the room from all different age groups performed the well known piece, William Tell Overture.

M.C Allyn Turner, Vice Principal and Athletic Director from Brier Terrace, ended the night by remarking the musicians should be thankful for their parents for what opportunity they have given to them.

“This is priceless. [Your parents are] giving you the gift of music, and now you’re giving us [that] gift,” Turner said.