Melina Fleury

Staff Reporter
The OHS band’s second concert of the year was its annual Pops Concert, held in the gym at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 5. The concert consisted of participation from all three bands – Concert, Symphonic, and Wind Ensemble – plus the jazz band. Everything was related to a theme, “A Knight to Remember”, so it was all related to superheroes, multiple cartoons and movies stories.
The songs performed were related to a skit that was put on throughout the duration of the concert. The skit was written by senior Skelly Shaughnessy, with the help of many other students, “[Coming up with the theme] is a democratic process, we talk to all the bands, get some ideas and then we vote,” stated Shaughnessy. He also added that anyone who wanted to write was welcome to help.
The concert was hosted by seniors  Skelly Shaughnessy, Erik Stephenson and Anna Pendleton, and under the leadership of band directors Timothy Arnold and Stephanie Hillman. The parents helped decorate the gym, and the eighth graders helped serve the food and the drinks.
The plot of the skit was “Saving Superman”, which shows characters like The Incredibles and Darth Vader. The students played songs from many different movies, such as Avatar, Up, The Simpsons and The Incredibles. Also, OHS student Alison Symington sang “All I could do was cry” by Etta James.  “Alison Symington actually sounded like Etta James and the hand movements also reminded me of her,” stated parent of  freshman Margeaux Dittrich, Connie Dittrich. Dittrich stated, “It’s nice to see ninth to twelfth graders acting. The writing was very clever and the music selections worked well with the script.”
“Everything was prepared by the students. [The hardest part] probably was making sure we had all the equipment, props… the legistics of it,” said Hillman. She also added that it’s important to have other students that are not in band to come watch the concert and support their friends that are playing.
Shaughnessy admitted that they were kind of unprepared this year, since most of the people involved were seniors and had busy schedules, “It exceeded our expectations. It went really quite surprisingly well,” he said, laughing. He added, “It’s the most fulfilling part when we get there and it works.”
Senior Aubrey Schield, who has been a part of  band since seventh grade, is now in Wind Ensemble. Schield said that the songs that they had to play weren’t that hard, but she liked to play The Incredibles song the most, “It’s a fun song and went very well,” explained Schield.
Schield added that if someone is going to a band concert sometime this year, they should go to the Pops Concert, “It’s so much more fun! It’s less formal and the audience is more involved.”
The concert was over at about 9:30 p.m., after many songs, funny lines, jokes by the actors, some dances and a lot of action and surprises attempting to save Superman. After the show, many happy parents, family members and of course students ran to get some cake.  The students were pleased after a whole day of practices and their final performance.
“I like how it’s more casual [than in the auditorium]. A night out with the OHS Band. Just nice and relaxed,” said Hillman, showing her fulfilled expectations. The next concert will be the Jazz concert, on Feb. 28 at Chaska. After that, there will also be a band concert on Mar. 3, in the OHS auditorium.

Photo/Melina Fleury