Although often hidden between the general congregation of students and the choir, the BSM orchestra plays a vital part in each school liturgy, never letting their talent go unnoticed each time the school community gathers for Mass.

Mrs. Kristina Lantz, the orchestra director, conducts and directs a group of 25 students who make up the orchestra. The orchestra consists of two types of orchestras: the regular high school orchestra––which plays at the school Masses––as well as the chamber orchestra, which performs at both winter and spring concerts.

This year the chamber orchestra is bigger than it has ever been because of the large amount of incoming freshman. “We had a lot of kids come up from the Junior High orchestra who are now in chamber. [They] have challenged themselves earlier in [their careers],” said senior Afua Paintsil.

One of the pieces the chamber orchestra is working on this year is called “Serenade for Strings” by Tchaikovsky, composer of popular ballets such as “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake.” “The Tchaikovsky piece is just a difficult piece to accomplishment in a high school orchestra career. It will definitely be rewarding to complete the movements and pieces,” said Paintsil.

Because of the talent the new members have brought to orchestra this year, the student musicians are able to play more intricate pieces than they have previously played in past years. “We’re playing more advanced pieces where the music is not arranged or edited, it’s the original copy from the composer,” said junior Mary Alice Hutton.

There are four different sections—called tempos—within a piece the orchestra plays, and while most high school orchestras play only two tempos, due to the great talent of BSM’s chamber orchestra, they play four. The success of the pieces the orchestra plays takes a lot of hard work and dedication from the musicians. “We are looking forward to both our winter and spring concerts and plan to blow people away with our pieces,” said Hutton