Valkyrie Spring 2018 - Issue 3

practice makes perfect
Story by Sara Arms
Design by Mary Thrailkill
Photos by Andrea HIll
The stage lights are down as audience members fill the Ford
auditorium. As those in the audience whisper to themselves, the
lights go up, silence falls, and the curtains open, revealing an
orchestra. Orchestra students spend 112 hours a year in rehearsal
preparing their concerts.
“It takes a lot for one to learn music,” said senior Leif Atchley.
“Even more so trying to blend what you're doing with your section,
not to mention the entire orchestra. On top of that trying
to follow a conductor with a very different opinion of how the
music should sound...It's not easy. However, I love playing with
this orchestra because no matter how difficult it is we still manage
to have a good time. And I'm all about that.”
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For many people unacquainted with music performance, going
to concerts is a fun way to spend a night. For those playing, these
performances are rungs on the ladder of their developing career.
“I like to think of my seat in the Orchestra as my office so
before every rehearsal I’m in my office at least 15 minutes before
we start,” said Atchlety. “I would have warmed up earlier in the
day so I use this time to organize my music, act like I know what
I'm doing and reacquaint myself with how it feels to play in the
space. Once rehearsal begins, it’s a mind game over anything else.
Trying to stay engaged with the music, focusing on doing the job,
playing right notes and learning every part on stage and how you
fit in and at the same time find a way to make it better.”
Playing in the orchestra provides students with experience in
a potential career path. It allows them to work as a group guided
by Dr. Eric Hanson enabling them to gain, as Atchley puts it,
“another chance to practice doing what I love. So much of becoming
a ‘professional’ in any field is quantity of quality practice.
Regardless of the music we happen to be playing, I'm carrying
myself as if I’m sitting principal trumpet with the New York
Philharmonic! One note has the power to change someone's life
with the right intent and motivation behind it.”
Across campus, theatre students are rehearsing an upcoming
show. 100 hours of rehearsal will go into this show (totaling 400
hours of rehearsals a year), not including the same amount of
time taken to building set pieces and making props. What audience
members don’t realize when seeing a staged performance is
that that particular moment has been rehearsed for weeks, and,
for bigger productions, perhaps months.
There is no such moment as the second before the lights go up
on the stage opening night. Backstage, crew members hold their
breath, listening as the first line, first scene, first act fly by. After
the first curtain call, as crew members mop and care for the set
and actors put away their props, costumes and makeup, a sense
of shared euphoria, an adrenaline-induced giddiness, wash over
everyone. The bustle calms down and everyone passes through
the greenroom by 11pm, grabbing their backpacks and heading
to the library to study or, if they’re lucky, to their rooms to sleep.
Any music and theatre student will tell you—it is worth it.
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