As the doors to the Central Kitsap High School’s Performing Arts Center opened wide, people streamed into a nearly sold-out auditorium. Parents, siblings, and music adorers from all over the county prepared to hear the second performance of the season. Despite the dozens of showings Kitsap Philharmonic (K-Phil) has done in the past, there was something incredibly special about the performance on Feb 8.
The first piece played by the advanced orchestra had never been played for an audience before, the piece’s musical debut. “Seventh Inning Stretches in F Major League and D Relative Minor League and Then Some” was the first orchestral piece written by composer Sharon Stearnes-Szigeti.
“I’ll write some parts for something, but never in a million years would I have considered writing a whole orchestral piece for a whole orchestra,” Stearnes-Szigeti said.
The piece’s name is a musical and baseball pun, alluding to the playfulness of the song. K-Phil plays a mix of classical and romantic pieces, with more modern songs, such as songs from “How to Train Your Dragon” or “Frozen.” Students such as Acting Concertmaster Hailey Vaught get the opportunity to play a variety of styles and complexities of music.
“I think it was really interesting to be able to work on a piece that was made for us,” Vaught said. “We were able to have the composer come in and listen and give us feedback almost every single rehearsal. It’s not very common that we get to perform pieces that are made by somebody local or even that are made for us.”
Stearnes-Szigeti grew up playing the clarinet and now plays piano and organ. She is a former organist for the Seattle Mariners, and that baseball knowledge informed her composition.
“She’s seen a lot of baseball games,” K-Phil Music Director Michael Woods said. “In fact, if you hear the organ sounds being played at T-Mobile Park now, those are recordings of her playing back in the nineties. So, there are little motifs—that are all things that she played at some point during a baseball game when she was the artist.”
Stearnes-Szigeti was connected to Sondra Shamrell, the clarinet teacher for Kitsap Philharmonic. Through that connection, Stearnes-Szigeti was able to get in contact with Woods, and she was given permission to write her piece.
“She put me in touch with director [Woods] and he said go ahead and write something,” Stearnes-Szigeti said.
There were many things about this piece that made it particularly difficult to write, especially the fact that it was being written for a student orchestra. Despite the experience of students in K-Phil, some pieces will just be too difficult for a student orchestra.
She knew what we could do,” Woods said. “But writing a piece at all is tough, but writing for a full symphony orchestra that’s written at an ability level that kids can play is tricky. So, the whole process was a learning experience for all of us.”
The piece was clearly made for a younger orchestra and audience. The song was exuberant, with melodies from “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and the orchestra yelling “charge” near the end of the piece. Another interesting aspect of the performance was Henry Woods, Michale Woods’ son, standing on stage and pretending to hit a ball just as the percussion played.
“It was just supposed to be a playful piece,” Vaught said. “And because we got to work with the composer, we got to add in that really cool element of having Mr. Wood’s son pretend to hit the ball, pretend to warm up, and run around the stage when he hits a home run. It was just so cool that we got to have so much creative freedom with it.”
K-Phil will have one more concert this school year on Sunday, May 4 at 4pm. It is assured to be a similar spectacle to the last few concerts this orchestra has put on.
“Come to our last concert,” Woods said. “We’re doing “Star Wars” music. We’ll have lightsabers and “Star Wars” clips on the video board.”
