For the first time in LHS music history, the Wind Ensemble will travel downtown next Monday, April 27 to perform at the Chicago Symphony Center, the historic music hall that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra calls home.
In the last couple years, the Center has opened its doors to any band that would like to rent it. Mr. Adam Gohr, the head band director here at LHS, saw a perfect chance to enrich his band’s experience.
“We thought it would be a special thing for our students to do, so when the opportunity presented itself, we took it,” said Mr. Gohr, who was instrumental in coordinating the event. The “we” he referred to, however, is not just the Wildcat band members. He reached out to Buffalo Grove and Lake Zurich High Schools, and the three school bands will deliver a concert together. “Buffalo Grove will start, play their set, Lake Zurich will play their set, we’ll do ours, then we’re doing all three combined for one piece at the end,” Mr. Gohr explained.
The 50 or so members that comprise the Wind Ensemble, which Mr. Gohr likens to the Varsity level for other sports, are looking forward to the unique opportunity to display their musical prowess on a professional stage.
Tickets to the concert will be on sale for $10 to help offset the cost of renting out the space.
“I’m excited,” offered senior drummer Konner Foster. “Just to play there and see the center — it’s absolutely huge — is going to be really cool.”
The Chicago Symphony Center event is a lighthearted, fun experience for the Wind Ensemble members in the midst of the time of year that is “very busy and moderately stressful,” in the words of Mr. Gohr. On Saturday, May 9, the Wind Ensemble will travel even farther south down to Champaign to compete at the University of Illinois Superstate. They earned a berth in the top 13 earlier this year during their preliminary auditions.
Unlike many other sports and clubs, the Wind Ensemble can only compete in Superstate every other year. Should they take first place in the upcoming competition, they will spend the 2016 season as Illinois’s honor band, the title that goes to the previous year’s Superstate champion, and get ready to compete again in 2017. Amidst all the preparations of his first Superstate experience, Mr. Gohr still manages to value the young musicians that surround him.
“These people are here because they’re the hardest workers in the building at their instrument,” the second-year director said. “They’re great players, they’re great kids. It’s a pleasure to step out on that podium in front of them every day.”
