Around 100 audience members were moved by several classic musical pieces performed by the El Camino College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Joanna Medawar Nachef at Marsee Auditorium on Dec. 3.
The ECC Symphony Orchestra is a college and community orchestra dedicated to rehearsing and performing traditional and contemporary orchestra music with Nachef leading as a conductor.
“The symphony has been in the music program for decades and I have been the conductor for four years,” Nachef said.
Since the orchestra is a course at ECC, Nachef plans to perform at the end of each semester to present all the work that she and her class have rehearsed.
The first piece was “Symphony No. 8 Op 93″ by Ludwig van Beethoven, Nachef’s favorite composer.
Before each number, Nachef gave the audience a little history lesson about the composers, important to her as a conductor because she studies and researches the people before she conducts it.
“I don’t share stuff that they can read off of Wikipedia,” she said. “I always connect with the audience because I want them to be a part of that experience.”
The second number was “Petite Suite de Concert” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, with three pieces called “ I. Le caprice de Nannette”, “II. Demande et reponse”, and “IV. La tarantella fretillante”.
“The first one is upbeat, the second is a more sweet and lyrical melody and then really fast and fun with the last one,” Nachef said.
The third was familiar holiday music of “The Nutcracker” from Pyotr Tchaikovsky and arranged by Merle J. Issac.
The last performance contained popular Christmas tunes, including “Silent Night,” “O Christmas Tree” and “Holy Night.”
After every performance, the audience erupted with applause and cheer.
“That shows you that they were connected to what was going on,” Nachef said. “It was certainly a very good receptive audience.”
One of the cello players, music major Josias Canul-Marchard, 22, liked working with Nachef.
“She’s full of passion and just like that, she’s just a really great person in general, I love working with her,” Marchard said.
Out of the 100 audience members, Isaiah Williams, 23, music major, enjoyed the orchestra performance.
“I really thought it was a great show and they really put together a show,” Williams said. “You can tell Dr. Nachef is very passionate about music.”
Williams adds that his favorite part of the night was the orchestra tune by Taylor since he’s not very well known and found it interesting to learn about him.
“It was so joyful, but also very emotional and complex,” he said.