Gizem Yucel, the Strings Director, commented on the evening\u2019s repertoire. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting program to play,\u201d she said. \u201cWe get to play a wonderful piece by Brahms\u2014Hungarian Dance\u2014which is very well-known. It\u2019s hard, but we are challenging ourselves.\u201d She also noted the appeal of Newbold\u2019s contemporary composition, \u201c\u2018Gravitas\u2019 is a great piece for us to discover the sections separately and hear how the winds are carrying the long tones while we\u2019re playing the motor on the violas and second violins.\u201d Looking ahead, Yucel expressed her hope that the orchestra will continue to grow, aspiring one day to expand it into a full philharmonic ensemble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brahms\u2019 Hungarian Dance No. 5 is among his most celebrated and enduring compositions. In the early 1850s, while still a young and relatively unknown musician, Brahms encountered the Hungarian violinist Eduard Rem\u00e9nyi in a tavern and subsequently toured with him. During their travels, Rem\u00e9nyi introduced Brahms to the vibrant rhythms and melodies of Hungarian cs\u00e1rd\u00e1s dances and Romani musical traditions. Enthralled, Brahms was inspired to compose his Hungarian Dances\u2014a set of 21 works originally written for the pianoforte. The first ten dances were published in 1869, followed by the remaining eleven in 1880. These pieces were later arranged for full orchestra, both by Brahms himself and by other composers such as Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k. As the California Symphony<\/a> observes, in orchestrating these works, Brahms \u201ctransforms the intimate drama of the Gypsy band into a big orchestral party\u2014with wild string melodies and brassy foot-stomping rhythms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to the concert, Tom Christensen, Chair of Fieldston\u2019s Music Department, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, \u201cThis is a new concert we added this year, so I\u2019m looking forward to it and curious to see how it turns out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Eric Gilley, the Band Director, the concert was as much a reflection of diligence as it was to musical skill. \u201cIt\u2019s always great to put on a concert to show the effort that you put in by creating the music and putting the music together,\u201d he remarked, \u201cYou finally get to see your efforts come to realization.\u201d This spring, the rehearsal schedule was anything but routine, disrupted by a succession of holidays that left little time for the ensemble to meet. \u201cWe never met together the entire month of March,\u201d Gilley explained, \u201cSo it\u2019s been really neat to see everybody come together and learn the music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cellist Alexander Goodman (Form V) echoed Gilley\u2019s appreciation for collective effort. \u201cThis is the culmination of a lot of hard work,\u201d he said, \u201cI think it went well.\u201d Cristina Ellis (Form V), a first violinist, agreed, \u201cI think it\u2019s so exciting to see the end of all the hard work we\u2019ve been doing in strings culminating in this moment.\u201d Fellow first violinist Soleil Gargano (Form IV) enjoyed performing in the Student Commons, sharing, \u201cI felt more connected with the other musicians and the audience than I usually do in the auditorium.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the concertmaster of the Orchestra, I would like to add that it\u2019s been an incredible honor to help lead the group through months of rehearsal. Showcasing all of our hard work and bringing it to life on stage was truly a fulfilling moment. Hungarian Dance is one of my favorite pieces, and I believe we did justice to Brahms\u2019 work. <\/p>\n\n\n The audience, composed of faculty, parents and students alike, thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Among those in attendance was math teacher Clay Kaufman, who captured the general spirit and palpable enthusiasm of the event. \u201cI love the Fieldston music program,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the fact that there are athletes and scholars and artists participating in all the different events and activities at Fieldston just for the joy of doing it,\u201d he observed, \u201cYou don’t have to be the best player on the team. You don’t have to be the best instrumentalist. As long as you’re participating, having fun, enjoying it and working together\u2014that\u2019s what Fieldston stands for.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Albert Einstein once said, \u201cA table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?\u201d Walking out of Fieldston School on that warm April twilight, I understood why. Music, that profound force that stirs even the most stoic of hearts, continues to thrive at Fieldston. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recordings of <\/em>Hungarian Dance No. 5<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Gravitas<\/em><\/a> from the concert are available at the links provided.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Without music, life would be a mistake” are surprisingly poetic words from one as austere as Friedrich Nietzsche. Yet, as I carried my violin case across the campus quad, bathed in the fading light of a golden spring evening, I understood why music \u2014 of all things \u2014 had so profoundly touched the German philosopher famed for his critiques of sentimentality. On Tuesday, April 29th, Fieldston High School Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble held a concert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":11700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,347,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[630],"class_list":["post-11699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-5.17.44-PM-e1747084724443.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11701,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699\/revisions\/11701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11699"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXcqgbw78Zmai_vDNBZkxGS-vv9gkJFrDWQI0-t2_CkHJ9IpV9y45jPh0c1C02pjCXUd8pBIKuZTUvAzK_EUODRnEMyspR8XwbON-ejR6_7QtorARTg698k4cmv9hIabCE9RPZspFg?key=0PSLt3JufdxQ_Zn2EmXJn8QX\")