RE Log - Spring 2024

SPRING 2024 Ransom Everglades LOG 33 Winter Wonder Upper school music program delights at December concert Rising Stars RE’s youngest actors impress in Robin Hood Middle school drama students performed with dazzling skill and comic timing beyond their years, offering a hilarious take on Robin Hood by James W. Moore during three performances at Swenson Hall, Nov. 8-10. The performance showed how RE’s commitment to excellence in the arts has its foundation in the middle school. The dashing Robin Hood, played by Stefano Kruger ’28 , and his Merry Band ( Vivi Pasos ’28, Aleko Katsoufis ’28, Diego Andrade ’28, Pace Caplow ’30, Christian Bell ’30 ) took on a host of bad guys ( Cohen McDaniel ’28, Sawyer Nelson Montet ’28, Sasha Estefan-Coppola ’30, William Stockman ’28 ) in the fast-paced, fast-talking comedy adventure directed by Elizabeth Harper ’28 and faculty member Gina Montet. Audience members tapped their feet to Broadway showtunes, swayed to a lively hoedown and reveled in well-known classics by Handel, Bach and Strauss at the Dec. 1 Winter Concert. The event at the Lewis Family Auditorium showed off the depth and breadth of RE’s upper school music program, featuring multiple performing ensembles and the second-year symphony orchestra with its 52 members. Student musicians and vocalists performed under the direction of Director of String Ensembles Scott O’Donnell, Choral Director Laura Montes and Conductor and Musical Director of the Symphony Orchestra Jon Hamm, and Director of Arts Shawn Costantino served as emcee. The concert opened with G.F. Handel’s “Allegro” and Lorie Gruneisen’s “Classic Hoedown” by the String Orchestra under O’Donnell, who also led the Advanced Chamber Ensemble in “Orion and the Scorpion” by Soon Hee Newbold and “Rhythm Dances” by Brian Balmages. The vocal ensemble performed five pieces including “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George and “Everybody Says Don’t” from Anyone Can Whistle under Montes. The evening concluded with “Sleepers Wake” by J.S. Bach and Overture to “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss under the direction of Hamm.