Springtime Serenades: Riverbend High School Spring Music Performances

The music department is often overlooked within a school as large as Riverbend. The students in the band, chorus, and orchestra are very talented. This year, they have had multiple public performances and assessments, all of which the Bears have performed amazingly at. 

Band

The band is very extensive as it covers five performing groups: concert band, symphonic band, wind ensemble, jazz band, and marching band. Each spring performance was remarkable, as the students worked all year to challenge themselves. 

Riverbend band director Jennifer Lewis said, "My students challenged me to challenge them more this year.  They were always eager to learn more difficult music and had the work ethic both individually and with their section mates to perform at a high level."

Lewis has taught music in Spotsylvania County for 20 years and has been with the RHS music department for three years. Through this, she has acquired significant expertise and is a fantastic teacher for each of her students. This was unendingly displayed at assessment, as the band achieved perfect scores across the board. 

Junior wind ensemble student Addison Pennings said, "The biggest accomplishment for the band this year was our perfect score at assessment! We worked so hard to perfect every piece, and our hard work definitely paid off."

When it came time for the spring performance, the successes continued, as the four sit-down bands all put on phenomenal shows with a variety of challenging music pieces. Lewis said, "We had pop, movie themes, Broadway, funk, jazz, it was quite eclectic!"

Pennings excitedly says that her favorite piece performed was entitled "Arabesque," in which she had the privilege of playing the opening flute solo. "As a band, this was the hardest piece we have ever played, and we worked so hard to put it all together," Pennings said.

Lewis continued talking about the unmatchable community that being in the band provides, saying, "Band at Riverbend is more than a class-- it's a community.  Students forge friendships that can last a lifetime. No matter what our students pursue after high school, the intangible skills they develop through experiences in the performing arts will benefit them greatly."

Chorus

This year's chorus group was full of gifted singers, and under the direction of Mr. Devante Lucas, they achieved a perfect score of straight superiors at assessment. 

Senior Sydney Charter has been singing all her life and got into her first audition choir at age 8. She has been an integral part of the school choir in both middle and high school. Charter said, "My favorite part about being in the choir is making music together with friends using nothing other than your voice. There's no other feeling like it."

At this year's spring choir performance, Charter had the honor of performing a solo in one of the songs. Of the songs performed, Charter concluded that her absolute favorite was Sarah Quartel's My Child because of the message it portrays and the beautiful harmonies of the song.

Charter concluded, saying, "I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity of singing in many choirs under many directors and learning from each and every one of them… I know I will take what I've learned and use it in my journey to becoming a music teacher."

Orchestra

To round off the astounding performances of the music department, orchestra also achieved perfect, scores at assessment! Senior, Cade Whittier, marks this achievement as the most significant in his eyes, as it was something each student had to work very hard to achieve. 

Whittier plays the cello for symphonic orchestra, and when asked about his favorite aspect, he said, "...the feeling when all of us get a song down. We then get to enjoy the thing we worked so hard for together."

The spring orchestra concert was stunning. Each piece was perfectly selected and perfectly played. Whittier said that his favorite song performed was the piece from La La Land. 

Whittier concluded, "I think everyone should find a way to enjoy or participate in music."