Orchestra students are springing into the end of the year with their final concert of the year Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium.

“It is our final performance of the year for the community,” assistant orchestra director Madison Waggerman said. “We’ve been working all quarter long, and we’re ready to showcase it.”

Orchestra concerts are typically preceded by nine weeks full of intense practicing and rehearsals, both in and outside of class.

“I practice my pieces,” freshman Sahana Sethuraman said. “Then, in orchestra, we play together and work on parts to make it better. 

The concerts serve as a goal for students to work towards and provide an avenue for them to improve their musical skills.

“Concerts give us something to work forward to,” Sethuraman said. “So, we get to work on these pieces and develop techniques and expand our musicianship with other, fellow members of the orchestra. And, we also get to work together and learn more things about music and just grow overall as musicians, and then at the end, we can showcase our evolution to the other people who come to watch the orchestra.”

For many students, the concert is an opportunity to listen to the music their peers in other orchestras have been working on and to celebrate the efforts of all musicians in orchestra.

“I think it’s important to have concerts in Orchestra to showcase your abilities and your talent to everyone else and let them experience what you do every day and what you have a passion for,” freshman Mehira Alla said.

For Waggerman, this concert is especially special for two reasons: the senior piece, in which all the seniors play together a final time, and the combined orchestra piece, in which all 160 orchestra students will play one piece together, sharing a stage.

“My favorite part of this specific concert is where we get to showcase our seniors; they play one last piece together,” Waggerman said. “And this year, one of our seniors, Riya Kumar, composed the piece. So we’re really excited to showcase that. And then I’m also excited for all of the orchestras to combine and perform one piece entirely together. All 160 of us. So, that’ll be exciting.”