The TCHS Percussion Ensemble makes their debut at PRISM
By Arnav Pawar
The Timber Creek High School Percussion Ensemble is a class and ensemble that only focuses on percussion and the percussion-aspects of music. Headed by Jonathan Tirado, the percussion director at Timber Creek, this year’s group has already made its first debut in the fall concert and made it’s second debut at PRSIM over the last weekend. For those who are not familiar with the PRISM concert, it’s been a TC tradition for a couple of years to combine the entire performing arts program and have them perform all on one day. The main goal is to have the community experience the wonders of all types of performing arts, ranging from dance to band to orchestra. Our focus today, however, is on the percussion ensemble.
Percussion pieces have been well-known to be catchy and get people on the groove, but in this upcoming performance, they focused on a traditional piece to commemorate the holiday season. Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo is the song that was chosen to be played this year. It’s a well known Christmas piece, originally played by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The ensemble dedicated lots of practice to perfect their piece and conducted nonstop rehearsals during class to make sure that everyone is in unison and sounds up to par! Freshman Sammy Philips, one of the students in the class and a player during their PRISM piece, said, “I feel like we put a lot of effort into this piece and I know it’s going to pay off, and we are going to knock the wind out of the audience.”
A unique part of this particular upcoming performance is that it utilized marching percussion, which will added a whole new musical touch and added to an overall eye-catching performance! This piece also utilized a wide range of instruments, from xylophones and marimbas to marching snares. The variety of instrumentation that the piece accommodates created a unique performance!
The PRISM concert took place on Saturday, December 11th, 2021 at Timber Creek High School. The percussion ensemble made its debut at 3pm in the gym! Junior Brittney Tester, another one of the students in the class and a player during their PRISM piece, said, “I think it will go really well! It’s a very fun song to perform, and I’m sure that the audience will enjoy it just as much as we do!” Thank you to everyone who attended! Go Band!
