Jazz Night: Are you...’Feeling good?’

Jazz Night at St. Dominics. At five in the evening, OIS head over to the school to prepare themselves for what is coming ahead. The point of this was to give the children that are doing after-school activities that relate to music a chance to shine. They have been practicing extremely hard all year. Although some may have just joined the groups, all the acts sounded amazing in the end, with all the hard practice paying off. OIS will be hosting the jazz concert next year, so hopefully even more OIS students will be there to show their talent.

Photograph taken after the Jazz Night (OIS students that were performing, Celio Brent and Mrs. Castro)

OIS comes with four acts, ‘Feeling Good,’ by Tessa Cuvillier (Voice) and Lillian Wang (Piano). They did an excellent job, especially since another group before them played the same song, but they were not discouraged. Next on the list was ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ played by Tom Heumueller, Ella Leigh, and their teacher Celio Brent. They were accompanied by Yida Zhang playing the piano. Next, we had “Dream a little Dream of Me”, and finally, “City of Stars”. These two songs were played by the after-school choir accompanied by Yida Zhang, Shuyue Ren and Yasmin Santiago.

Photograph taken while the choir was singing “City of Stars” (OIS after school choir)

The whole jazz concert sounded and was amazing. What are some of the performers' favorite parts of the day? “My favorite part of the day was when we went to Saint Dominic's and performed there.” Anahi Chrun (Year 7) says. Ella Leigh really enjoyed playing her Saxaphone, “it was really fun to perform” Ella Leigh comments. “When we were done with our part of the performance” Tom Heumuller (Year 7) states. “I loved practicing a first verse of my song on stage with such high-quality microphone and room acoustics.” Tessa Cuvillier said. “I loved to be on a stage, and I also loved to watch other schools shows.” Margo Khotianova declares. Lastly Mathilde Hill Elbert comments, “My favorite part of the day was seeing everyone perform.”

All three people certainly wanted to perform again next year, challenging themselves even more by playing harder pieces, and making it sound more jazzy. They all agree that next year it should be more organized and there should be more acts from OIS, but Mrs. Castro said that she would try to do it next year. The reason this was left to the cocurricular activities is because it was so close to production, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to organize it.

Photograph taken while “Bye bye Blackbird” was being played on the Saxaphone (Celio Brent, Tom Heumuller and Ella Leigh)

After hearing their opinions, would you like to join the Jazz Night next year? Show us what you have got, whether it’s guitar, saxophone, singing, piano, or anything else that you want to show! All these after-school clubs are working hard, and next year the whole school will be welcome to join, in an after-school club or not. Hope to see you there next year!

Photograph taken while “Feeling Good” was sang (Tessa Cuvillier)