Leonard Bernstein was one of the first American composers to become famous around the world. He was the music director of the New York Philharmonic, and composed his share of classical pieces, as well as scores for Broadway productions and operas. On Wednesday, March 12, band, strings and vocal students came together to pay homage to Bernstein’s great works.

“You have to have a free and open mind in order to listen to Bernstein,” strings sophomore Kevonna Shuford said. “It is very confusing at times and hard to listen to. It’s very dissonant.”

A select few students participated in the concert, practicing every day after school for over two weeks.

“[The concert involved] the chorus and the orchestra,” strings junior Taisuke Yasuda said. “Not the full philharmonic, just the strings and a few band instruments.”

The consensus was that the most interesting piece of the night was called “Chichester Psalms,” which was written in Hebrew. This composition embodied Bernstein’s unique compositional style, particularly due to strange time signatures.

“Usually [the time signatures] are 2/4 or 3/4 or 4/4, but he has like 7/4 and 9/4. It’s uneven,” Yasuda said. “It’s pretty, but it’s also hard to play.”

The timing as well as other aspects of “Chichester Psalms” came together to give the piece a sinister sound.

“The third movement sounds like people screaming,” strings junior Xin Yue Yuan said. “All of the music was by Bernstein and it sounded like an evil circus.”

Performing “Chichester Psalms” was difficult for the vocal majors, as well. Though they are accustomed to singing songs in languages other than English, this particular one was unlike anything they’d performed before.

“Movement two [of ‘Chichester Psalms’] was a difficult one because, especially for guys, the tempo was extremely fast,” vocal senior Pierce Connell said. “It was a matter of drilling and drilling and drilling until we didn’t have to think about it at all. Harmonically and tonally it was a very difficult piece.”

Another piece in the concert was an overture from Bernstein’s opera “Candide,” which is based on Voltaire’s classic novel.

“Bernstein wrote an opera called ‘Candide,’ so we [played] an overture and an aria from it,” band junior Kimberly Le said. “The aria is called Glitter and Be Gay. The singer of the aria [was] Virginia Mims. It [was] awesome.”