AMBER MATTICE
Staff Writer
On an eerie Halloween night, the College Symphony Orchestra caused the dead to rise — quite literally. Upon walking into the concert hall, guests were met by a coffin surrounded by students dressed for a funeral. There were people lying on the ground, covered in blood, coughing, groaning or lying perfectly still.
Some of these “undead” would walk around and point in obscure directions, never saying a word but making their presence known.
As the time for the concert to begin came close, the audience ceased its quiet conversations and a funeral march began to play as the students in the orchestra sat quietly.
Audience members slowly became noticeably uncomfortable, as there was no sign of the concert starting. That is, until suddenly, the coffin was carried down to the front of the stage. Out of that coffin came conductor, Dr. David Rudge, dressed as Dracula himself, who soon after took the stage to begin the concert.
From that point on, the concert became a show worthy to be performed on a Halloween night. The choices in music were perfect; the orchestra played pieces that many associated with the holiday. From “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” to music from “Psycho,” to an extremely haunting piece titled “Extraction on No. 8,” which seemed to be a favorite among audience members, everyone in attendance was completely immersed in the performance.
On top of that, almost everyone in King Concert Hall was wearing a costume, including the performers. Costumes varied from bloodied victims to those of more light-hearted nature — it really illustrated the fun, as well as the scares, that Halloween brings.
Along with the costumes and the music, there were a couple of occasions where, in between pieces, the audience could hear shrieks and the cackle of witches offstage. At one point a girl, chased by a man with a knife, ran in front of the stage screaming.
Everything flowed and added to the increasingly tense and suspenseful air in the concert hall. The orchestra would play a fast-paced song to symbolize the chase or a slow and haunting melody to capture the ghostly air of a Halloween night.
“It was almost fairytale-like for some of the pieces and I really enjoyed that it was just the epitome of the spirit of Halloween,” said Katharina Misanes, a freshman music education major who played violin in the performance.
The orchestra’s songs were played very strategically to give off a dreamlike ambiance. They would play a certain section of a piece very softly and slowly escalate, and then play a very harsh, high-pitched note repeatedly to startle the audience.
“[Rudge] would give us visuals, in a way, so we would have a feel and an image in our head to help us play the music properly,” Misanes stated when asked about the process behind learning the songs and getting into a mindset to play such eerie pieces. She referenced several scenes from the movie “Psycho” that they were to keep in mind during their performance.
Everyone in the orchestra, including the conductor, put themselves entirely into the performance to ensure it would frighten and entertain. The performers certainly did not fail in capturing the essence of what Halloween is in regard to its beauty, its fun and its macabre ambiance.