The final push...

To say that the final few weeks are a whirlwind (especially for the seniors) is a tremendous understatement. Here's a few happenings in our world the last few weeks...

We hosted the Fox ValleyHonors Music Festival on April 27th...nearly 500 students from 15 different schools descended upon OHS in the areas of Band, Orchestra, and Choir, to work with some of the best collegiate conductors in America for the day. Students that were selected from our program included clarinetists Bri Tolomei, Lindsay Christoffel, and Jenny Iverson, flutists Evah Engel and Isabela Pelikan, sax players Ryan Lewis and Elizabeth Sester, percussionists Mike Brennan and David Udy, low brass players Nick Wilkins, Ryan Lueck, and Tyler Guist, oboist Caroline Davey, trumpeter Robert Shaw, and horn player Hannah Loeffelholz. Our boosters really played the most important role of the day, and it's because of them that it went off without a hitch. 

Bri Tolomei finds out she is first chair:)

Hanging at Navy Pier pre-concert.

Earlier that week, we took over 60 students to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in what has become an annual tradition. The students hung out at Navy Pier for a while, then heard a fabulous pre-concert lecture about the piece they were about to hear, followed by an epic performance of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8. Brass players were in heaven on this one, and the flute playing was staggeringly good. 

And lastly, the last few years have been marked with exceptional musicals, and this year's was no exception. Mary Poppins was stunning, and the cast (including flutist Sarah Obert in the lead role), crew, and pit musicians did an exceptional job of bringing the story to life.