Students performed holiday music and jazz standards
The Winter Arts Festival Band Concert on Thursday, December 12 featured the Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Improvisation, Drum Line, as well as the Middle School Jazz Ensemble. Mr. DelPizzo instructed all but the middle school, which was instructed by Mr. Springer.
Along with the group performances, it is a tradition at Malvern for the band concerts to feature solo acts. This year, five soloists performed. Senior Brendan Stec played an intricate piece from “A Charlie Brown’s Christmas” on piano. Steven Van Ommeren, a sophomore, performed “Clair de Lune.” Joe Canuso, a senior, played piano and sang the song “Your Song” by Elton John.
Junpei Li, a senior student from Beijing, blew away the crowd with a dynamic performance on the Chinese Flute. Finally, Rob DiCicco, a sophomore, had quite a unique performance, playing a Beethoven song on the bass guitar.
The Jazz Ensemble performance was definitely a success. The people featured with solos were Justin Coyle, who had multiple solos on the saxaphone, Joe Canuso, who had a great solo on the bass guitar, and JP Clark, who had a very melodic solo on the guitar.
In the Jazz Improvisation group, everyone had at least one solo. Brendan Stec had a couple of outstandingly fast and musical piano solos. Rob DiCicco had a very rhythmic solo on the bass guitar. Caleb Kao, Alex Mankowski, Tom Pero, and Mike Milliken each had some jazzy solos on brass instruments. Mike Vermeil had a couple of face-melting solos on the guitar, and Jimmy Canuso had a nice solo on the guitar as well.
Drumline was a great success! The members of drumline sound like pros, yet, according to Mr. Del Pizzo, “About 75% of the people in drumline have never even seen or touched a drumstick before.” Plus, drumline is not a class, but a homeroom, meaning, instead of practicing for 45 minutes a day, they only practice for 25.
The Middle School Jazz Band had a very great performance. The skills that they displayed were definitely beyond their ages. There are some great upcoming musicians into the Malvern Prep upper school.
