From “Christmas Concerto” to the “Nutcracker Suite,” orchestra students filled the PAC with a variety of holiday songs this past Friday.

Despite being the second concert of the year, it was a concert of firsts, like the first-ever performance of the Symfonietta, and the first concert of the year for wind ensemble.

“[Wind ensemble] is fun,” Payton Gagliardi, junior trombonist, said. “It’s more music, and it’s a different style of music. Mr. S[ackschewsky, orchestra teacher] is very different than Mr. Thompson. It’s fun to experiment a little and to grow as a musician.”

While Wind Ensemble only plays with the Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra also had some integrating to do.

“For Concert Orchestra, we have two different groups [that practice separately,]” Andrew Jarcik, sophomore cellist, said. “Seeing how the two groups come together to play as one is really cool.”

Despite the challenge of blending two orchestras, Jarcik feels the orchestras’ hard work paid off.

“I feel it went very well,” he said. “We all prepared a lot for it, and it’s nice to see it came out this way because of all the work we put into it.”

Orchestra is not all work for student musicians, though. The music can be enjoyable to play.

“[My favorite was] our last song, ‘Slavonic Dance,’” Jarcik said. “It has a very fast tempo to it and was very fun to play.”