On Thursday, Dec. 11, music will fill the halls of Alan Harvey Theater, spanning genres and grade levels as PHS celebrates high school musicians. This year, Piedmont’s jazz band, symphonic band, orchestra, and a capella classes will combine in one collective concert, showcasing students’ talents in one evening.
“In previous years, we’ve held three separate concerts: the middle school band concert, the high school band concert, and the orchestra concert,” music department director Trevor Chaix said. “This setup caused some overlap, with certain students required to attend all three concerts. By combining all high school groups into a single concert, students will now only need to perform at a maximum of two events instead of three.”
Symphonic band saxophonist junior Francesca Cecarelli said that this concert is a chance for the musicians to engage with other ensembles behind the scenes.
“I’m excited because we get to see the orchestra and see what they do, and then the orchestra gets to see the band side,” Cecarelli said.
Chaix said that in May 2025, jazz band and orchestra combined to perform a piece, allowing each group a glimpse into the other’s routines.
“I had a really fun time last time when we kind of merged with the orchestra,” said jazz band saxophonist junior Raiden Holt. “I think it was really fun just to be backstage with them, but to also see them perform because I wouldn’t typically have the time to go out of my way and see them, but I got to see them firsthand, and it was really great.”
The concert’s combined format allows groups to work with one another onstage much more easily, especially with the a cappella class.
“We’re doing a little collaboration, with a capella plus music people for a backing track,” said a capella and jazz band singer junior Andrea Boothby. “For that, some people in jazz and symphonic play the background music that we sing over.”
Chaix said that the choir class’s return to PHS after two years was a major factor in the decision to hold one big concert.
“Since the class currently has only ten students, it made sense to include them in one of the existing music concerts,” Chaix said. “Rather than placing them with the middle school groups, we decided to bring together all of the high school performing ensembles I direct into one combined event.”
In order to accommodate the number of ensembles playing, the concert will not feature small groups and combos like past concerts have.
“The small ensembles won’t perform this time in order to keep the overall concert concise,” Chaix said. “Those ensembles of two to six students used to take up almost half of the program, so without them, the focus will shift back to the larger groups.”
Typically, the high school band concert features at least four small ensembles, three of which come from the jazz band. Jazz band generally delegates class time once a week for combo work, but has not done so this year.
“I play in a small group outside of school, but I think that for someone who only gets the opportunity in school [the lack of combos] might hold them back a little bit in terms of confidence and learning to kind of operate in a smaller orchestra,” Holt said.
Jazz band drummer freshman Luca Cecarelli said he was hoping to be in a combo this year and was disappointed about the lack of combos at the winter concert.
“It’s messed up. I can’t do the combos because we don’t actually have them,” he said. “It ruins the whole process of it.”
Chaix said that although there will be no combos for the winter concert, students may still organize combos to play at the jazz band’s annual performance at Yoshi’s in March.
“Over the past three years, I’ve seen steady growth in both the size and skill of our ensembles,” Chaix said. “My hope is that as these programs continue to develop, we’ll eventually be able to separate the concerts again to give each group even more stage time.”
