Hundreds of parents, friends and fellow students walked into the Republic Bank Arts Center theater at Washington Township High School on May 6 in a somber mood.
“There was a tragedy in our community today,” the school’s Visual and Performing Arts Department Supervisor, Casey Corigliano, told the audience at the beginning of the student orchestra’s 2025 spring concert.
It was just hours after a 10-year-old township boy – a student at Birches Elementary School – died of a gunshot wound to the head at his Turnersville home. Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the case, and the boy’s name has yet to be released.
“Music drives us to do what we do,” Corigliano noted at the concert, “and tonight we honor someone we lost in our community.”
Led by director Lisa Sebastiani, the school’s Sinfonia and Chamber Orchestra musicians responded to the loss by putting on the best show they could. A concert highlight was when soloist Abigail Hayward walked on stage and performed with grace and poise the first movement of Haydn’s “Violin Concerto No. 4 in G major.”
The audience gave her a standing ovation.
The concert opened with the Sinfonia orchestra performing selections from “The Phantom of the Opera,” by Andrew Lloyd Weber. The music started slowly, then picked up speed. Sebastiani coordinated the piece with contributions from 20 violinists, five students each on the viola and cello, three on bass and two on the piano.
Next up was Mozart’s “Amadeus, from Symphony No. 25.” Hayward’s solo was followed by the Chamber Orchestra performing three works: “Libertango,” by Astor Piazzolla; “Wachet Auf,” by Bach; and “Music from Wicked,” by Stephen Schwartz. The concert concluded with the Sinfonia and Chamber groups playing Alan Menkens “The Little Mermaid” together.
The concert’s musicians are as follows:
Violin 1
Abigail Hayward, Francesca Pavone, Chloe Argentini, Taylor Santos, Olivia Broadbelt, Kiley McElroy, Jacob Shachar, Thomas Petrowski, Corrine Myers, Lucy Halicks, Arianna Bermudez, Xara Buhangin, Noah Baez, Grant DeAmicis and Mia Aguilar.
Violin 2
Livia Bonora, Giuliana Rodriguez, Layla Noguera, Koa Faust, Kali Messick, Isis Smith, Natalie Roedica, Michael Gillespie, Brooklyn Thompson, Joseph Palestini, Marchelino Azab, Makayla Ford, Kathryn Senk, Kourtney Spina, Joseph Andrias, Selena Aseron, Gabrielle Gallina, Alaina Massanova and Matthew Robinson.
Viola
Emily Engber, Delaney Schwartz, Andrea Cardamone, Layla Mungekar, Constance Fanslau, Maggie Taylor, John Gallinaro, Sanaa Mehta, Ethan Silva, Emma Woodward, Liliana Beteta, Chase Quan, Shiraz Mehta and Ashanti Junious.
Cello
Spencer Cade, Joshua To, Aidan Dazilme, Gabriel Stone, Alexandrea Williams, Quinn Olivo, William Kimmerley, Christian Cona, Noah Raberi, Drake Glemser, Isabel Bermejo-Witt and Ava Cadavid.
Bass
Melissa Engber, Fawwaz Imran, Leo Yang and Giovanni Colofranson.
Piano
Swareen Jecrois and Elanie Zhu.
Two violinists and three cellists performed during the Washington Township High School
Orchestra’s spring concert at the Republic Bank Performing Arts
Center.
