The South Area Orchestra Festival is an annual concert that features not just the high school orchestras, but also the elementary and middle school orchestras from the South area. Orchestra students of all ages come together for this major event.

The orchestra program begins in fifth grade and goes through high school. Students have the choice to play violin, viola or cello at the elementary school level. At the festival, students from the six South area elementary schools, Brookwood, Brookridge, John Diemer, Oak Park-Carpenter, Rosehill and Trailwood, perform as two separate orchestras, one for fifth graders and one for sixth.

“I think the fifth and sixth grades are really cute in the way they play because they play little songs and they’re just cute,” freshman cellist Erin Viets said.

Seventh and eighth grade students can continue with their instruments from elementary school or opt to play bass. They will perform as a middle school orchestra as opposed to a performing as a separate orchestra for each grade.

“It’s an interesting thing to think that we were them a year ago,” Viets said.

The high school performs several songs with the freshman, philharmonic, and symphonic orchestras combined, but symphonic, the top orchestra at South, plays one song as a separate group.

The finale of the concert is a song performed by all the orchestras combined. Everyone, from fifth graders to seniors, learns one song to finish off the evening. All the groups will have a rehearsal during the day Thursday to perfect this piece and make sure all the parts fit together. The symphonic band will also be joining the orchestras for this song.

This is the last concert of the year for the orchestras, and for seniors, it’s their last concert ever.

“It’s cool to see how far they’ve come and how far we’ve come,” Viets said.

The concert will be tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the gym.