The sounds of snaps, claps and cheers flooded the Hammer Theatre Center during the San Jose State School of Music and Dance’s “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story ” performance Friday night.
The SJSU Latin Jazz Ensemble, Opera Theater Program, Wind Ensemble and Spartan Spectrum Dance Team each put on their own performances with the theme of “West Side Story.”
West Side Story is a musical about two teenagers, Tony and Maria, from different ethnic backgrounds who fall in love in 1950s New York City.
David Vickerman, SJSU associate professor of music and director of bands, conducted the event, which lasted from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. with about 400 people in attendance.
He said the production planning began in summer and Friday’s performance was the Wind Ensemble’s first campus-sponsored concert held indoors since Fall 2019.
“These students have needed this,” Vickerman said in a phone call. “It’s hard to explain. Unless you’re a musician, you [don’t] know [what it’s like] during a pandemic to have [live performances] ripped away from you for so long and not be able to do it.”
Vickerman said the decision to organize “West Side Story” came from the upcoming movie adaptation premiering in December.
He said he wanted to collaborate with the Spartan Spectrum Dance Team because they’re part of the band program and he wanted to have dancers in the show.
“[The Spartan Spectrum Dance Team] usually perform in halftime shows and in the stands with the band and football games, and I've always thought it would be really cool to involve them in the other aspects of the band program,” Vickerman said.
Liberal studies junior Hayden Fleig said she joined the Spartan Spectrum Dance Team this semester.
Fleig said the dance team usually performs at football games so performing in a theater was a new experience for them.
“I was definitely nervous because it was more of a musical theater style and it was out of all of our comfort zones so it took a lot of courage to really embrace the character that we were trying to portray on stage,” she said. “I think what added to the nerves was also the time crunch but we pulled through and it was a good performance.”
Fleig said it took her 48 hours to learn all the choreography and they didn’t practice at Hammer Theatre Center with the Wind Ensemble until the night before during dress rehearsal.
Vickerman said although the characters in West Side Story are Puerto Rican, there are no Puerto Rican songs in the original musical.
He said he wanted the Latin Jazz Ensemble to play Puerto Rican-composed music for proper representation.
“It was really important for me with 2021 glasses on, or perspective, to incorporate actual Puerto Rican music so those first two tunes they played were actually Puerto Rican compositions,” Vickerman said.
The Latin Jazz Ensemble started the night with an upbeat performance by Puerto Rican composers Sergio George and Titi Amadeo and Cuban composer Jorge Luis Piloto.
Vickerman also wanted to include some songs from the original West Side Story which led him to reach out to the Opera Theatre program.
They performed some of the musical’s hits including “Tonight,” “Somewhere” and “Gee Officer Krupke.”
Sandra Bengochea, SJSU music professor and director of the Opera Theatre program, said this was the first big performance her department has put on since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been great to be back working in the concert hall and staging and laughing and working with each other again,” Bengochea said in a phone call.
She said choreography was one of the biggest challenges while preparing for this performance.
“The duet and ‘Officer Krupke’ have taken the most time to put together because I do not consider myself a choreographer,” Bengochea said.
Vocal performance senior Evalina Maas-Espinoza performed “Somewhere,” a ballad about Tony and Maria’s love for each other.
Maas-Espinoza is perfectly suited for this role as a soprano because she’s able to hit the high notes just as Maria does in the original musical.
Maas-Espinoza, who played Margarita and “somewhere girl” in the Fall 2021 Sunnyvale Community Players performance of West Side Story, said she loves the plot.
Maas-Espinoza drew in a large crowd to watch her perform again.
Vickerman said the turnout for the event was bigger this year because many people who normally wouldn’t come to an event like this attended.
“I was nervous during the pandemic because we were in a shutdown but being back on stage and just being able to sing, there’s no words to describe it,” Maas-Espinoza said.
The wind ensemble’s performance was a mixture of an uptempo piece and contrasting elements.
While the Wind Ensemble was performing Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the Spartan Spectrum Dance Team came on stage in sparkly blue and gold costumes and danced to the music.
The choreography was perfectly in sync with the music and followed the musical theater dance style with some jazzy elements.
Kinesiology junior Ashley Zarco performed a solo at the end.
Zarco was originally going to perform a three minute piece but they ended up changing it during the dress rehearsal.
“Originally they wanted her to dance the entire end portion which is about three minutes long, and they realized in having her do it how long that was and it was just very, very difficult for her,” Vickerman said. “The concert was the first time she did it in the shorter version.”
Despite certain setbacks, many students said they were thrilled to perform in front of an audience again.
“It’s really amazing to get to do a concert again and it’s been so long,” said Anastasia Gobin, music education senior and wind ensemble flute player. “To get to [perform] inside, because before we couldn’t even play inside, and the crowd’s energy was so good, it energized all of us.”
She said the music department has been supportive throughout her last three years at SJSU.
“I can really tell that [Vickerman] cares about the group and he puts a lot into it and it pays off and I think that we had a really solid concert,” Gobin said.
