Author Spotlight
Mya Smith
Orchestra will perform their annual Pops concert with songs from popular movie soundtracks and other well-known songs on March 5.
Symphonic orchestra, the most advanced level of orchestra, will be playing songs from “Aladdin.” The second highest level, the philharmonic orchestra, will play songs from “Harry Potter” and “Fantastic Beasts.” The lowest orchestra level, concert orchestra, will play songs from “Mission Impossible.”
After each group plays, the three groups consisting of roughly 70 students in total will combine to play group pieces from “Mission Impossible” and “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion.
Orchestra has been preparing for this concert since December and plans to keep practicing during the school week and at home to perfect their musical execution.
For junior Leniah Ward who plays in the symphonic group, practicing for this concert has been easy because the music isn’t as difficult to learn.
“Our Pops concert usually has a bit of easier music, because the top groups work on stuff for the contest, which is super hard music, so we stay on the easier side of things,” Ward said.
Junior Stella Lindberg plays cello for the philharmonic orchestra and enjoys playing for the Pops concert because the audience can easily recognize the music and playing well-known songs makes it easier for the orchestra to learn the songs.
“It’s fun to play them because you kind of already know how they go,” Lindberg said. “for “We’re All In This Together,” everyone already knew what it sounded like. So then that just makes it easier to play. It’s nostalgic for a lot of people who grew up on those movies.”
The most exciting part for Lindberg is hearing the music come together from all of the groups harmonizing and enjoying the symphonic orchestra’s songs.
“I’m definitely looking forward to seeing first hour [symphonic orchestra] play the “Aladdin” soundtrack,” Lindberg said. “One of my friends in first hour played some of it for me, and it sounded really beautiful .I think it’s going to be easy for us to stay together and play it well during the concert.”
President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 9 that he’s directing the Trump Administration to end the production of pennies. He ordered the U.S. Treasury Department to stop producing pennies, according to AP News. The U.S. Treasury Department is in charge of managing federal finances.
Trump believes the production of pennies is a wasteful use of money, according to AP News, because a penny costs more than two cents to produce.
The U.S Mint — the organization that produces, organizes and distributes coins and metals — lost $85.3 million by producing pennies in the fiscal year of 2024 according to AP News.
History teacher Steve Klein believes this new policy to stop the production of pennies won’t lead to very significant changes in the economy.
“From a government cost-cutting perspective, it seems like an easy thing to target,” Klein said. “A slight concern I have is that companies would be rounding up so things that are $1.99 will be $2 because they’re not going to round down to the nearest nickel. That does have a slight impact on inflation, which one of the priorities of the new administration was to cut down on inflation.’
Junior Willow Austin disagrees with Trump’s decision to implement this new policy because she believes there are more important things to focus on and that nickels are more expensive to produce than pennies.
“By some point we’re just going to be completely on credit and debit cards,” Austin said. “I don’t think cash will exist just because of the evolution of our economy. It doesn’t make sense to me, because if you look at the actual facts of how much the coins cost to manufacture, nickels are the ones that are the most expensive.”
Klein believes that eliminating pennies isn’t the most crucial thing to do in the U.S., but he knows that it’s part of Trump’s plan and would eventually have to happen anyways.
“I don’t think the presence of pennies is the most urgent need in our country,” Klein said. “ But it’s part of an economic plan that the President was elected to enact. If it saves a little money to do that, then that’s probably to be expected.”
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