Sinfonia performed at Segerstrom Center at 12 p.m. March 9.

Due to orchestra’s performance at the MUSCO Center at Chapman University last year, they caught the attention of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s attention and were then invited to come back and play in their festival this year at the Segerstrom Concert Hall.

They were the first to perform and played the complete 4 movements from St. Paul’s Suite by Gustav Holst and two short pieces by Edvard Grieg titled “Two Elegiac Melodies.”

“It’s an honor to be invited into this festival at the Segerstrom Concert Hall,” said orchestra teacher Matthew Fang. “We are one of only 15 orchestras in Southern California performing.”

“Esperanza High School, being one of the 15 schools chosen to perform in Segerstrom, is definitely honorable and amazing,” said junior and violin player Gianna Fernandez.

This made sinfonia work a lot harder to prepare for their performance. They had extra rehearsals in the afternoons in addition to their zero period class, and Fang invited Stephen Tucker, an associate professor from University of California, Irvine, to work with sinfonia.

Fernandez found the most challenging part of preparing were the songs they practiced. “We tried our best to put all the little important details in each song to bring a more professional character. It took quite a while to figure out what was best for each song whether figuring the feel of it, the intonations, and so forth.”

However, junior and cellist Elaine Chen thought they performed beautifully when she said, “There’s no better feeling than knowing that each and every one of us could create something so beautiful on stage together.”

Fang also believes it was a great experience for sinfonia. “It was an incredible experience to have so many like-minded youths gathered together and play music for each other. I feel grateful that my students were able to experience playing in such a wonderful concert hall and meet other musicians from other high schools.”