Forte 2021 Was More Than Just A Cloud Nine Experience

Written by Gian Angelo Garcia

When people hear the word ‘orchestra’, the first things that come to mind are elegance, formality, and classical pieces. But the Lasallian Youth Orchestra’s (LYO) latest show Forte 2021: A Cloud Nine Musical Experience, showed us that an orchestra is more than capable of performing musical pieces and medleys from other genres of music. The songs that were performed by the talented members of LYO gave us all the comfort we needed in this time when most of us are stressed, not just from work or academics, but from the daily challenges that we have all been facing due to the pandemic.

For this year’s Forte, LYO decided that it would be appropriate to have a travel theme on the performance as to give the viewers a feeling that they are traversing the world through music. This can be seen from the chosen medleys, which originated from artists from all over the globe as to really give the audience a sense of freedom from the year long isolation that we have all undergone. 

However, their wonderful orchestral performances do not overshadow the performances of the soloists and group recitalists. The soloists chose timeless classical pieces from composers like Chopin and Bach, that showcased their talent and mastery of their chosen instruments. The group recitalists, on the other hand, decided to perform pieces from a variety of genres such as J-Pop, proving to us that music is also fluid and ever changing. 

Despite the world’s current predicament, the Lasallian Youth Orchestra has proven to us all once again that music can overcome any obstacle along its path in order to touch our minds and our hearts. Forte 2021: A Cloud Nine Musical Experience was a production months in the making that has been well worth the wait, and we cannot wait to see what else LYO has in store for us in the future.