Collage begins where individual voices converge: in a performance shaped by music, movement, words, visuals, and the qualities of change. Rowland Hall’s Collage is the summative performance of many arts, incorporating performance, visual, literary, and more. This year is the eighth year of the show, with each year somehow still managing to improve upon the last performance. The concert is mainly the presentation of A.C.E., Rowland Hall’s Advanced Chamber Ensemble, but it brings in unique and different collaborators every year. This year, A.C.E. is collaborating with the poetry program, the dancers, and the film program. The orchestra, dancers, writers, and others have been collaborating in preparation for months to create a performance showcasing their artistic talents, with a theme of “Reflections.”

Reflections is a theme “meant to represent childhood, their youth, their time spent being young, being at school, being free without the stress of being an adult yet,” as described by orchestra teacher Sarah Yoon. Ms. Yoon describes how “the pieces are in order, starting with ‘Scenes From Childhood’ by Robert Schumann, with that theme repeating throughout.” This theme of youth and its impermanent nature is revisited throughout the concert, with the concert closing with an adaptation of “The Last Rose of Summer” by Thomas Moore meant to reflect the ephemerality of youth. Many of the visual elements of the performance are designed to allude to previous years’ performances, such as last year's theme of bringing life and emotion to an object through artistic expression and connecting through art, and 2024’s theme of “Einstein’s Dreams,” delving into the myriad possibilities of time through Einstein’s imaginative lens, as a way to reflect on how the show has grown in its eight years.

Collage, while an orchestra concert at its core with the Advanced Chamber Ensemble playing throughout, brings multiple distinct art forms together, combining them so they uniquely interact, creating a performance that is especially unique among our other art displays and performances throughout the year through its multimedia nature.

Every person, from orchestra to dance to tech, who contributed to Collage has helped to create an incredible performance that is an inspiring tribute to the kind of change everyone in the Rowland Hall community will experience next year as we move up the hill. The theme of Reflections helps us to think about and deal with the major changes that come with moving, through an artistic form that helps us cope with change as a grounding medium. The show is a diverse, original, reflective, collaborative, and unique work of art that represents an extraordinary collaboration among the arts. Collage this year will take place on Friday, April 17, from 7-9 pm in the Larimer Center. Special shoutout to all the students and staff who helped in the creation of this show, specifically Joel Long, Rob Mellor, Matt Sincell, and, of course, Sarah Yoon and A.C.E.! Make sure to come out and support the works of all these amazing artists!