After playing the final note of “Hoedown,” bows still in the air, symphonic orchestra students received applause from around the room. Soon everyone stood up, giving them a standing ovation that lasted for minutes. The audience, however, isn’t the friends and family of orchestra students; they’re professional music educators in Missouri, making the occasion evermore unique.

Since 1938, the Missouri Music Educators Association has gathered every year for a music conference. The conference featured performances from three different groups, with Parkway Central symphonic orchestra being one of the groups this year. Orchestra director Alicia Bont described the audition process, which they started last year.

“We had to send a professional audio recording of our group’s performance last year, and I had to send concert programs from the performances,” Bont said. “Then there’s four different judges that listen to all of the submissions and choose who will perform.”

Bont believes that MMEA is a good opportunity for the music educators to connect and inspire each other. She picked music that others would be interested in hearing for the orchestra to perform.

“I wanted to have a variety of different styles that we played,” Bont said. “I wanted to feature things that we were good at, and I wanted to be able to show the diversity of our orchestra program to the state.”

One of the pieces the orchestra played is Concerto Grosso in G Major by G.F. Handel, featuring three soloists: junior Aiden Moon, senior Asher Koh and senior Zach Madi. Bont wants to showcase the orchestra’s ability to play pieces by masterwork composers with the best student from each section playing the solo. Moon, playing the violin II solo, explained that this piece is very nuanced in terms of its expression.

“Handel is a little difficult because it’s not super Romantic. It’s from an earlier time period,” Moon said. “I think the whole piece is like a march. Not a heavy grieving march, but just moving forward.”

In his performance, Moon utilizes different techniques to express the Baroque style of music.

“A lot of the direction that you take with music is with how long you play the notes, and in the style that we have to play for this era, a lot of the notes are cut shorter,” Moon said. “That briskness, I think, does help with the sense of marching.”

Moon and Koh played violin solos, while Madi played the cello solo part. The different solo parts, Moon said, emphasize the contrasting character in instruments. Madi said the soloists rehearse together to match each other’s performance.

“It creates something unique. Even though you have a large orchestra, you have that more chamber style of music,” Madi said. “While I’m playing, I’m listening to how their [Moon and Koh’s] dynamic level is, and I’m adjusting to balance their style.”

Besides classical music, Bont also included a piece composed by Koh, titled “Engulfing Waters”. Every year since she taught at Parkway Central, Bont said, she likes to include student composition and arrangement in concert. She wants to showcase student involvement in the orchestra program at the MMEA concert.

“It’s a unique thing. I don’t think there’s a lot of schools in Missouri that do that,” Bont said. “And Asher is the person who’s been doing that for our program most recently.”

In spring last year, Bont requested Koh to draft a piece that can be performed by orchestra. They had a draft of the piece in August and decided in September it was good enough for the orchestra to play.

“[I asked] Asher to compose a piece specifically for this performance,” Bont said. “It’s not going to be performed at any other concert. This [MMEA concert] will be the world premiere of a commissioned piece by Asher Koh.”

Koh said he started the composition process by recording his piano improvisation and mapping it out for string orchestra on notation software. Over time, he made some adjustments and formed a more cohesive piece. It took him five months to finish and to hear the orchestra play his piece. He describes how the orchestra sounded very different from his composition software.

“When I put all the notes in notation software, I can hit play and have a demo of what it would sound like,” Koh said. “but it sounds so much more real and human when the orchestra plays it, and they play it more expressively.”

One of Koh’s inspiration for this composition is the Sibelius violin concerto. Koh likes the atmosphere of the concerto, and included that into his improvisation.

“The special thing [about Sibelius violin concerto] is, instead of starting very loud and crashing, this one starts very softly with the melody and the soloist,” Koh said. “So it’s actually a very subtle entry, and it’s smooth.”

Koh thinks the piece overall expresses loneliness, sorrow and the feeling of longing. However, he did not intend for it to have a set meaning. He believes the beauty about music is that it can be interpreted by the listener in any way they like.

“I think I enjoy letting each listener have their own interpretation of the piece, because then they’re involved in the creative process as individuals with free will,” Koh said.

Madi, who has played music with Koh since middle school, said Koh understands how to bring different emotions out of the piece while keeping different sections engaged in playing. Koh’s composition is Madi’s favorite piece they played at the concert.

“It’s not just [a] one dimensional piece, it’s a piece that’s very complex,” Madi said. “and depending on what experiences you have, you could get very different reactions to the piece, which is something that I think is really special, especially from someone who’s just starting their composing career.”

Soon going off to college, Koh is planning on studying classical music and doing more music work in the future. He is grateful for this opportunity to compose for the school orchestra.

“I’m glad that I can play this with not just any orchestra,” Koh said, “but the orchestra that’s full of my friends, my peers, and the people that I spent the last four years with.”

Koh’s original composition is one of the many areas where students contributed for the MMEA concert. Students also helped with photography, program design, teaching assistant and other logistics leading up to the concert, and that is something Bont believes is unique to Parkway Central’s orchestra program.

“There’s lots of student involvement in all the little parts of things, I don’t think that that’s something that most of the programs are going to have,” Bont said. “A lot of people do that professionally, or the teacher just does it. Hopefully that’s [student involvement] something people are seeing in our program.”

Overall, Bont hoped that this experience will allow students to see outside of the school orchestra to the bigger world of music and be inspired to continue playing in the future.

“I’m hoping that when the students get to go to the convention, they will be surrounded by the music community,” Bont said, “and be inspired to try something new, work a little bit harder, stick with their private lessons, pursue music in college – because it’s a lot of fun.”