This past Valentine’s Day marked the fifth anniversary of Music From the Heart, a fundraiser presented by Aragon’s music department at Central Peninsula Church in Foster City featuring music performances by Aragon students. Parents, friends and students sat around tables decorated in red lining and white lace with plates of sweets placed next to heart shaped candles. Students in the music department offered drinks to attendees and served as waiters.
Sophomore Justin Privitera, a member of Aragon’s chamber choir, says, “The theme of Music From the Heart was based on Valentine’s Day, so we made the aura of the room very love based, and many of the songs we sang were about love.”
Sophomore Jeanna Joseph was the first to step on stage, singing “Lascia Ch’io Pianga,” a classical Italian aria by Handel. She says, “The hardest part about learning it was trying to accurately convey all the emotions of the song and make it exciting. I had to become familiar with the feel and the meaning of the piece in English before I could master it in Italian.”
Music From the Heart gave students the opportunity of choosing what to perform. This freedom encouraged students like senior Katie Kilcullen and junior Jenney Zhang to showcase original pieces.
On her song choice, Zhang says, “I wrote ‘Nostalgic Regrets’ when I just needed an outlet to organize my thoughts and emotions. Oftentimes songs are centered around one issue, but this song is actually a compilation of different hardships building off one another. I chose to sing this song because the lyrics are very interpretable so listeners can draw from their life and feel what they need to feel.”
But Kilcullen adds that performing an original song carries with it the uncertainty of audience reaction. “Singing an original song was really scary and required a lot of courage because I did not know how the crowd would react to it,” says Kilcullen.
Musicians from other schools joined Aragon students on stage as well. Sophomore Karinna Chong says, “I attend Hillsdale High School, but I am a part of Scarlet Brass Ensemble, which has Hillsdale students as well as Aragon students, so we were invited to perform.”
Throughout the show Masters of Ceremonies and seniors Regina Wen and John Graham incorporated audience interaction, sharing a variety of love-themed pick up lines as well as asking an audience member to participate in a short Valentine’s Day improvised sketch. Graham says, “We made up a lot of content during the show because it was going a lot faster than we expected. But I think our improvision flowed smoothly into the program since Regina and I get along so well.”
The show ended with a performance of “Cecilia” from September, the male a capella group. Junior Jerome Vincent, a member of September, says, “This is my first year hearing about September and joining a cappella. Many people at Aragon do not know about us. Fundraiser performances such as this one open up a lot of opportunities and gain new members for our music programs due to the exposure we get from an audience.”
