On Monday, May 18, excited parents and their children waited while director Brian Murphy warmed up Wind Ensemble. This would be the students’ last concert of the year, and families were more than eager to listen to the seven songs total that the bands had been working on for the past quarter.

At 6 p.m., Murphy greeted the audience, then led Wind Ensemble straight into “Guardians of Liberty.” It’s peppy song with percussion playing a key role in the melodies played by the wind instruments. Then they played a song from a James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” which was quite the contrast to the bright song played just before. The piece was much slower, and the lower-pitched melodies were foreboding. It was a song that kept people on the edge of their seat, and it was a major hit with the audience. The last piece they played was “Blast from the Past,” a song made in the style of swing music. The saxophones shined through on this cheery song, and there was a drum solo in the middle of the movement. It had a tempo a little slower than expected, but the piece was still well done.

After Wind Ensemble bowed with a hearty round of applause from the audience, Concert Band took up the stage and began warming up for the four songs they were about to play. While the students were preparing for the next half hour, the families in the audience talked about their favorites from Wind Ensemble.

At last, Mr. Murphy introduced Concert Band, and they were off with “Where the Sun Breaks Through the Mist,” which had a classic orchestral fast tempo, introduction, and ending. It had a sort of uplifting feel to it, and the flute and French horn were well accommodated in the piece. Next up was “Crossings in Time,” a piece that Murphy described as sophisticated. It was formal, especially in the way that the multiple pieces fit together. There were lots of incredibly long notes that accented different features of the movement, and every second of the piece was taken into thought. Next was “Music from West Side Story.” It had melodies from the movie/musical, and the band definitely had fun with this piece as it went from fast and excited to a romantic melody to the sadness of the end of the movie. The piece followed the plot line of the movie well with not words but with trumpets. The last song of the night was “Fate of the Gods,” which started with an overcast sort of mood, but with a loud beat of the drums, it burst into a lighter melody. This movement definitely had a lot of shifting tempos and moods in it as well, ranging from a sad sort of tone to one of romance. A loud “thunderclap” from a drum helped lead the band into the ending of the song and the ending of the night.

Coral Milliard, an eighth grader at Horizon Honors, was proud of the final performance. “I think we did great,” she said afterwards. Wind Ensemble and Concert Band worked hard, and Horizon Honors had achieved a wonderful show once again.