On Sunday, April 14th, Tosa East Tri-M held its annual Solo & Ensemble concert at Regency Senior Communities, where students from the music department performed for a crowd of over 150 people. The event, which in the past was held in the East Theatre, provided students with a chance to not only play for a larger audience, but gain experience in organizing community events. The concert program featured a wide variety of songs, instruments, and ensembles, from vocal, piano and string solos, to quartets and duets, and even some fan favorite songs like “Edelweiss”, “Better Luck Next Time”, and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
Sydney Cretton and Violet Pandya are the current Event Coordinators on the Tri-M Board, and had wanted to organize the event since last spring, when they initially applied for their positions.
After the performance,
Cretton reflected on the experience saying, “It’s incredibly rewarding to see our hard work pay off and I couldn’t be prouder that we brought this celebration of music to the residents at Regency.”
The biggest challenge when planning the concert was finding a venue, but Cretton and Pandya were in luck when they connected with Mara Henningsen, the parent of a cellist at East, and the Campus Administrator at Regency. When Henningsen heard that students were looking for a performance space she jumped at the chance, knowing it would provide an amazing experience for both students and residents.
“I had one resident come up to me with tears in her eyes and say ‘Oh that was so incredible. I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to hear those young people perform,’” Henningsen recalled after the show.
The buzz continued into the week after, with residents continuing to contact Henningsen with words of praise, “Another resident wrote to me ‘How nice it was to listen to such extraordinary young people sharing their extraordinary talents. It warmed my heart.’ So many people came up to me or wrote to me sharing these sentiments.”
Not only did the performance bring entertainment to those at Regency, but it also allowed the musicians to perform in an intimate, community setting. Many of the performers were seniors, looking to have one last solo concert.
One of these seniors was Emerson LaWall-Shane, who performed in a violin duet. For her, the experience was a milestone of showing how far she had come since Freshman year, and afterwards, she reflected, “It was a great opportunity to be able to share all of our hard work with an audience. Especially one as enthusiastic as the folks at [Regency]!”
Lily Nielsen, another senior who performed a vocal solo voiced a similar sentiment, “I really liked how happy we made everyone!”
Although board members Cretton and Pandya will be graduating at the end of the year, they can’t wait to pass the torch on to the next Event Coordinators, and hopefully keep the Solo & Ensemble Concert tradition going for many years to come.
