This past Friday, Sage Hill’s Woodwind, String and Guitar Ensembles performed in the Black Box Theater. The concert ended with a performance of The Beatles’s “All You Need is Love” with all the ensembles conjoined.

According to Brent Dodson, instrumental music teacher, this last song was a bit of a challenge due to limited rehearsal time and the risk of bringing all the ensembles together. Nonetheless, he was willing to take this challenge head-on.

“No concert would be good without a risk or two,” Dodson said.

Students took very positive experiences from the concert as well, claiming to have been challenged in the process but glad that everything came together wonderfully on the stage.

“I think [it] went really well. I’ve been a part of the instrumental music program at Sage for three years now, and I think that was one of the best concerts we’ve had. The atmosphere was really exciting and I had a great time performing!” said junior Janis Jin, who plays the French horn in the Woodwind Ensemble.

The instrumental concert, titled Songs & Dances, consisted of a variety of music, with several solos from students amid the group performances. The ensembles themselves were relatively small, which, for Jin, presented a slight difficulty she was more than up to.

“One thing Sage’s music program gives me is an opportunity to play in a really small group, which is actually a lot more challenging than you might think…if I make a mistake, it can actually affect everyone else too. It gives you a sense of responsibility, knowing that your contribution can be really powerful,” Jin said.

Dodson was presented with the task of modifying the music to suit his smaller ensembles as well as individual student needs. Overall, however, he emphasized his aim to instill a love of music and a sense of pride in his students. “I want the students to walk away from this performance feeling good about what they did,” Dodson said.

As this concert was one of his first at Sage, Dodson also expressed hopes to take the instrumental program in a slightly new direction, something he was a bit nervous about.

“We’re taking the instrumental program in a way that’s not so different from before, but different,” Dodson said.

Fortunately for Dodson, the concert went well, a feeling his students also felt personally.

“I think the greatest experience was seeing everything come together. We definitely struggled with some things at the beginning of the year, but by the concert we had really accomplished some awesome things,” Jin said.