After two years without music, Hillbrook’s concert makes a dramatic return
The fall and winter of the 2021 – 22 school year found the Hillbrook community re-discovering and re-imagining beloved traditions, events, and adventures – and on December 15, 2021, Hillbrook’s Winter Concert made a comeback for the ages with “Spaces: A Journey of Togetherness.” Conceived as an immersive digital art exhibit and concert, the Winter Concert was a celebration of student creativity, and our joyful return to creating together. Working together with the music team and the Hub team, Middle School students built a spectacular show with their own individual contributions of talent, ideas, and time. They wrote poetry, learned new coding techniques, decorated campus spaces, learned dance steps, and practiced new songs. The cumulative work transformed Hillbrook’s campus into a world of color, light, and sound.
“I was surprised at how incredibly important it is to work as a team when performing a piece of music.”
Mete, 6th Grade
After two long years without creating music as a group, Hillbrook’s music team knew they wanted to create something special – the extraordinary result was led, in true Hillbrook fashion, by students. “I was surprised at how incredibly important it is to work as a team when performing a piece of music,” said 6th grader Mete. “I learned that teamwork makes the dream work in music.” A campus-wide experience of design and technology, “Spaces” was unlike any performance Hillbrook had done before; instead of heading straight to the gym for singing and playing, families first visited a series of interactive, self-guided exhibits featuring student-created music, poetry, digital art, and special effects.
“After nearly two years of solitude, apartness, isolation, and detachment, and for sure no music making, we wanted to create a space to celebrate togetherness, unity, and being a community,” said VanNessa Hulme Silbermann, Hillbrook’s Middle School music teacher. “We designed it so that our audience could experience self-reflective spaces during the self-guided campus tour – the exhibits portrayed various levels of solitude and alone-ness. As the audience came together for the concert portion, we celebrated what community means to Hillbrook.”
At 6 pm, families gathered in the gym for the community part of the show. Musical performances on stage were lit with musically responsive projections – a project that gave students a chance to try their hand at visual interpretation. “They listened to the music track and tried to imagine what visuals can go with the song,” said Hub Maker and Design Teacher Clara Ngo, who worked together with her Creative Coding elective to build digital artwork for the exhibits and the concert. “The beauty of this project is to see if you, the coder, can create what your mind is imagining. It was amazing to see how each student contributed their own voice or their own creativity to make this show come to life.”
“The beauty of this project is to see if you, the coder, can create what your mind is imagining. It was amazing to see how each student contributed their own voice or their own creativity to make this show come to life.”
Clara Ngo, Hub Maker and Design Teacher
Musical performances included the Hillbrook Singers, Hillbrook Dance Squad, Rockband, and 5th and 6th grade Music Makers Classes. “Singing the solos was my personal favorite–I was surprised by myself and that I signed up for a solo,” said 6th grader Bella. “I love singing, and practicing with all my friends was so much fun. The other songs from other classes sounded BEAUTIFUL, which kind of surprised me. I thought we would just sound like some middle school kids who had no idea what we were doing, instead we sounded, in my opinion, like an actual band!”
The evening ended with a burst of colorful confetti – a celebratory end for an incredibly special evening. “My favorite memory from working on this project was hearing the applause of the grateful audience,” said 5th grader Grace.
“I loved being able to try something new and exciting,” added Victoria, another 5th grader. “I would love to do it again!”
Click here to watch the live recording of the concert
Music pieces included classics like “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “Auld Lang Syne” alongside new favorites like Imagine Dragons’ “Believer” and “Waving Through a Window” from Dear Evan Hansen.