The warm, rich sounds of the marimba, along with the mellow tones of the saxophone, drifted through the band hall last week.
The nervous laughter and chatter of students waiting to audition accompanied the quiet strum of a guitar and the quick staccato of piano scales.
Several students paced back and forth between the practice areas and the audition room, tightly held music sheets crinkling in their hands.
Auditions for the 2025 Prism Concert span two days. Students in each of the 40 acts who audition have spent weeks, or even months, rehearsing.
For some students, like freshman Jeremy Loschiavo, this is their first time auditioning. For others, like senior Beck Solomons, this is their fourth time.
Even though Solomons has done this before, she said she “absolutely” still gets nervous before an audition.
“As many times as you can practice,” Solomons said, “it doesn’t mean that you’re automatically going to get in. There are times when I’ve sung better just practicing and fooling around than in an actual audition.”
For this audition, she had a cold and a sore throat, which made her nervous.
“I’ve been singing this song forever,” Solomons said, “and I was like, oh, my gosh, imagine I just completely crack. But it went really well, so that was the lucky part.”
While this is Jeremy Loschiavo’s first time auditioning for Prism, he is no stranger to the LHS music halls, since his mom, Danielle Loschiavo, has been the choir director for almost 25 years.
“It looks different to me now,” Jeremy said, “but I’ve been in this hallway my whole life, so it’s not that surprising. It feels like I’m just moving up. It’s just where I should be.”
Jeremy auditioned with his best friend in the first slot after school.
“I think it went well for what we did,” he said. “We’ve been practicing this song for maybe like three weeks now, so it’s definitely hard, but it’s fun. It really is.”
While sophomore Ava Christian had previously auditioned last year for Spring Theatre Night, this was her first time auditioning for Prism.
“I’m actually pretty excited for this,” Christian said. “[Spring Theatre Night] was really fun, so I am just doing this for the experience.”
This will be the twenty-second Prism Concert that Serge Beaulieu, who is the band director and director of music, and Danielle Loschiavo, the choir director, have produced.
“The first one was so funny,” Beaulieu said. “We didn’t have lights. We had one spotlight. This old junkety thing that had been left here from, like the ’70s or something like that. That’s all we used.”
Beaulieu got the idea for the concert from a show they did while he was in college.
“The light comes into a prism and shoots out in different directions and different colors,” Beaulieu said. “So the idea is that the sound comes from different aspects of the different styles. In this case, different types of music.”
Loschiavo, Beaulieu and music teacher Devin DiBernardo run the auditions and make the final decisions about which acts will be in the show.
The orchestra, choir and jazz ensemble, which are also classes at LHS, are automatically in the show.
“The ensembles are the headliners,” Loschiavo said. “Then the students audition in small groups. They work on their own, or if they need help, we say we can help them, but a lot of times, they do their own thing. Some of them start months in advance.”
Once students know what they want to perform and who they want to perform with, they sign up to audition during a free period or after school.
Beaulieu, Loschiavo and DiBernardo try to keep the show around two hours, which means about 20-25 acts, depending on how long the acts are.
“If we took everybody, it would be like a three and a half hour concert,” Beaulieu said. “So we try to whittle it down.”
The three teachers usually agree on who gets into the show, Loschiavo said.
“Sometimes we may be close on one,” Loschiavo said. “Then we’ll go through the rest of the list.”
The teachers agree that selecting who gets into the show can be difficult, especially when it comes to whether or not to cut a senior.
“I think for me,” Loschiavo said. “If a sophomore and a senior are at the same level, we’ll take that senior, since that’s their last opportunity. But if there’s a sophomore that blows the senior out of the water? It’s the sophomore that’s getting in. That’s the way it is. That’s the music business.”
Students can audition in several acts, so very often, if they don’t make it in one act, they may make it into another.
This diverse display of talents is one of the elements Loschiavo enjoys most about the Prism Concert, since it’s a way students “can show some of the other talents they may have.”
“We have students in our marching band that may also play piano,” Loschiavo said. “We heard one today. A concert pianist. You would never know that because of what they play in the jazz ensemble, so it’s a great way to hear some of the talents.”
The concert pianist Loschiavo was referring to was sophomore Siera Chen, who has been playing the piano since she was 3 years old.
Chen said she didn’t always enjoy playing as much as she does now. When she was in middle school, she said she wasn’t surrounded by that many serious musicians, so it was difficult.
“But when I reached high school,” Chen said, “it became an actual passion for me. Especially after joining the jazz ensemble. I found it’s great to be diverse in playing classical and jazz. Now I’m surrounded by a bunch of talented people, and they’re very supportive of [being a musician].”
One of those dedicated musicians is junior Blake Gustitus, who is also one of the marching band’s drum majors. He auditioned with a big group of about 20 students called “Bad Dog No Biscuits,” which is also the name of the Japanese fusion jazz song they performed.
Being a part of the music department is “awesome,” according to Gustitus.
“Everyone’s so nice and cool,” Gustitus said. “And just friendly.”
Junior Jack Collins plays trumpet in the marching band and is also one of the 20 students who performed in “Bad Dog No Biscuits.”
“I think we did great,” Collins said. “We just changed the music, and this was our first time looking at it since then. We didn’t make any mistakes or anything, and it sounded good. We had a blast.”
Junior Joseph Nahlik, who plays the sax in their group, said he also thought the audition went well.
“I was kind of nervous for it because it was our first time [performing] this big song,” Nahlik said, “but it was really good.”
Nahlik said he has enjoyed being a part of previous Prism Concerts because of how “fun” it is.
“It’s a whole-day thing, and you just hang with your friends,” Nahlik said. “And I like seeing the other groups, too. That’s also cool because sometimes there are really good groups, and it’s fun to listen to.”
Loschiavo also enjoys seeing the variety of groups that perform at the Prism Concerts and is glad the students get to share their talents with others.
“It’s a great opportunity for many of our students who don’t always get a chance to perform in this manner outside of the school,” Loschiavo said.
