All States!

Seven Groton students attended the All States Festival this year, with three of us in the orchestra, three in choir, and one in the concert band. After a long eight-hour rehearsal on Friday, we wrapped up our hard work with a concert at the Hanover Theatre the following day!

Apparently, around one thousand musicians performed in the All States Festival this year, and they added a lot of new ensembles (including contemporary and percussion groups!). As a part of the orchestra (conducted by the amazing Nick Palmer), I played “Mars” and “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s The Planets as well as “Main Title” from John Williams’s Star Wars. Inspired by, unsurprisingly, the eight planets in our solar system, The Planets is a suite of eight pieces, one for each planet. We played “Mars” and “Jupiter,” two of the most dramatic and grand pieces in the collection. We followed those with the iconic “Main Title” from Star Wars. In fact, according to our conductor, John Williams was actually inspired by The Planets and incorporated parts of “Mars” and “Jupiter” into his Star Wars repertoire. All three pieces sounded SO majestic and powerful; especially in the theater, I could hear the orchestra’s sound echoing off the high ceiling. We also got the chance to listen to other ensembles play! The contemporary ensemble’s performance of “Dream On” was especially memorable for me, and we enjoyed a unique gong performance from the percussion ensemble afterwards. I felt so lucky to be part of such a passionate music community.