On April 19, the orchestra, dancers, and poets collaborated to create a performance showcasing their talents, which was themed around Einstein’s Dreams, a book written by Alan Lightman focusing on a fictionalized young Einstein working on his theory of relativity. The book is separated into multiple sections, each featuring one of his dreams. The orchestra played multiple pieces that corresponded with these dreams, while dancers performed to the music. Additionally, poets read original works that related to sections of narration that were taken directly from the book. This year’s Collage displayed many qualities that people keep coming back to our art performances for, such as unique themes and elaborate connections between different arts.

Collage was started six years ago, designed to combine classical music with other arts. It evolved into unique performances that vary in ideas, arts, and overarching themes. Each year has a distinct theme, allowing for different art forms, from ceramics to dance, to come together, creating a performance that isn’t worth missing. Sarah Yoon, who directs and puts together Collage, said that her vision was to “blend music with art, dance, and poetry, creating an immersive experience for the audience.” This year, Collage focused on Einstein’s theory of relativity, and more specifically, the dreams he had while coming up with it. This theme allowed for multiple mentions of time scattered throughout the performance and heavily inspired the set design, which included a massive clock on the stage. The theme was picked after a conversation between multiple arts teachers led to the book Einsteins’s Dreams. Ms. Yoon describes the book as something that “merges science with humanities and brings forth the ‘fragility of human existence.’” This theme allowed for a unique twist on a normal orchestra performance and gave the audience a new perspective on how to view the orchestra’s music as part of a theme, rather than just as separate songs they played.

Overall, the performance went smoothly, even after only having two chances to run through the show with the full cast and crew. These rehearsals involved setting up all of the lights, having poets figure out when they were supposed to come on the stage, and timing the poems with the orchestra and dancers. The show was a success, with the audience and people involved enjoying the entire show. Grey Obermark, one of the four poets reading original poems for Collage, said, “It was exciting to be around so many talented people, and the final show really represented all of our hard work.” The performance demonstrated the artists’ talents and brought everyone’s hard work together to create an incredible show.

Mixing art forms allows people to see performances in a new way. When people think of the orchestra, poets, or dancers, they don’t imagine them performing together. Instead, they see them performing in separate events with separate audiences and themes. Collage brings these distinct arts together, combining them so they flow and interact with each other and creating a performance that becomes a distinct event from our other art performances throughout the year.

Overall, every person who contributed to Collage and their hard work created an incredible show. All of the time that was spent preparing for the show—whether students were rehearsing pieces of music; choreographing dances; writing poems; or even working on the technical side of the show, such as lights, projections, and the set—paid off and was crucial to the success of the performance. Thanks to everyone who participated in Collage, either on stage or behind the scenes, for creating a successful show!