On October 23, Riverside Brookfield High School Fine Arts teachers Matt Loeb and James Baum—orchestra and band director, respectively—put on the yearly fall concert in the RB auditorium.
Though the similar fall theme has been kept, the addition of Loeb added a new perspective to the performance not only from Loeb, but also from the students and audience.
“This concert is Halloween themed, which has been the same throughout the years, but what was done differently this year is I performed one of the pieces, which is something I rarely ever do,” Loeb said. “Instead of bossing around, it was more like ‘we’, including me being a part of the team that needed to get to the end zone. I performed the harpsichord.”
The new addition of having S.E. Gross Middle School involved in the performance expanded the range of experience and performance for this year’s fall concert.
“This year we had S.E. Gross Middle School perform here, performing spooky tunes,” Baum said. “It was really nice to have them here.”
When preparing for concerts, Loeb makes sure that not only are they working on their specific technique with their instruments, but also the well-being of the performers.
“Every day in class, we worked on fundamentals and technique,” Loeb said. “Chamber Orchestra meets first period every day, so we also prepare by talking about how to get good sleep and everything about being a functioning human. For this specific concert, we did a lot of baroque music, which is an earlier period of music that is very technical. It requires them to be very particular in the note placement of the beats and their note accuracy. They prepare and practice, making sure that every movement is very particular and precise.”
Baum coordinates the music to the theme of the concert carefully while Loeb mostly tries to coordinate it to the students.
“Picking out the music for the concert has to be the hardest part of my job,” Loeb said. “It is what I spend most of my time doing—less of teaching the music and more of picking the music out so that it is the right fit. I have to pick something that challenges the right students in the right way. I pick something that engages everybody and also that will fit the theme of the music and the concert. Making the right choice in concert music is important to keep everyone engaged in the concert and to make sure that there is development occurring so that it’s harder than the song they played before it or challenges them in a new way.”
The concert provides entertainment for the students and parents, and acts as a milestone in the performers’ progress. Their fall performance this year was unique this year with Loeb in the performance and having one of RB’s feeder schools getting a view of what their future fall performances will look like here at RB.
