{"id":32538,"date":"2022-12-18T12:21:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000029121"},"modified":"2022-12-18T12:21:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:21:14","slug":"wilson-high-holiday-concert-returns-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/wilson-high-holiday-concert-returns-this-week","title":{"rendered":"Wilson High holiday concert returns this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sounds of the season are returning to Wilson High for family and friends alike as the Bruins music program presents its holiday concert this week.<\/p>\n

More than 200 Wilson students from intermediate orchestra, string orchestra, saxophone ensemble, guitar ensemble, symphonic winds, symphony strings, symphony orchestra and choirs will perform more than a dozen holiday songs in a two-hour show on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.<\/p>\n

What makes this almost 100-year-old tradition at Wilson extra special is that, on Friday, the musicians truncate their show to 45 minutes and play it for the Wilson students and faculty in a pair of assemblies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally love it and I think everyone else does because we have our typical concerts that the students usually don\u2019t come to or know about,\u201d Wilson senior violinist Kate Johnson said. \u201cMaking it part of the school day is really exciting because we want to show all of our classmates and friends what we do and what we\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wilson senior violinist Kate Johnson. Photo courtesy Wilson Music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe students and teachers love it, and I don’t know of any other schools that do anything like this,\u201d Wilson instrumental music director Michelle Ellis added. \u201cYou think, \u2018Are high schoolers going to want to see an orchestra, band and choir concert?\u2019 But they\u2019re quiet, they\u2019re listening and the group sounds so good. We get a great reception from it. \u2026 It\u2019s a really neat experience for them to see and hear that, some of them for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s musicians have been preparing challenging pieces for this concert since the beginning of November. The show will include Christmas carols, sacred songs, Hanukkah songs, selections from \u201cThe Nutcracker,\u201d \u201cCharlie Brown Christmas\u201d and more before finishing with the Hallelujah chorus from Handel\u2019s \u201cMessiah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tradition for the last 12 years to finish with that Hallelujah chorus with our full symphony and choir, so about 200 kids, performing a 300-year-old song,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis is a Long Beach native who attended local schools Fremont, Jefferson, Wilson, Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach before returning to Wilson to teach in 2010. She played the violin but never thought about teaching until taking a music theory class at LBCC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized music had science and math and art combined,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI began teaching students as a side job and liked sharing that with young students and getting them excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis, choir director Curtis Heard, guitar ensemble teacher Lou Ward and marching band director Eric Messerschmidt all have talented leaders in all of their sections, and one of them is Kate Johnson. The senior violinist is section leader and concertmaster after four years in the program. She\u2019s also one of the soloists for the Holiday Concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s mature, kind and provides great leadership,\u201d Ellis said of Johnson. \u201cShe\u2019s very talented, but she\u2019s also a very hard worker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said that she took a violin class in elementary school just for fun, and then, \u201cIt just turned into my favorite thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how you can be completely free to play what you want to play,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt takes your mind off the rest of the things happening in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson plans on studying music in college and is interested in schools like San Diego State, Colorado and TCU. But first, she has to lead her classmates in some of the most challenging pieces of music they\u2019ll play in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really focusing on bringing the violin section together, that\u2019s just part of my responsibility,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s my job to make sure everyone is on the same page and working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

the concert is also a fundraiser for the music program that\u2019s sending its symphony orchestra to Palo Alto and Stanford for a clinic and competition next year.<\/p>\n

You can purchase tickets to Wilson\u2019s holiday concert here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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