On Thursday, two Wilsonville students—senior John D’Souza and junior Alexandra Brookfield—got a rare and new experience in their young music careers: to play live music on radio in front of a live audience. “I was a little bit anxious, but I was able to relax quickly and more just enjoy the experience,” said Brookfield. “Luckily, we were able to practice enough repeatedly that it was kind of muscle memory, so I was able to really not focus on what I was doing and just enjoy everything going on.”
Brookfield and D’Souza got the opportunity as members of the Pacific Rose Ensemble, a group made up of other young and talented musicians focused on connecting people to the world of classical music, a timeless art that seems to be undeservingly sidelined compared to other genres. “Classical music is really like hundreds of years of music all grouped into one tiny category. So there is something out there for you and there’s something out there for every mood and it’s really important to support the work of classical musicians, especially locally,” Brookfield explained.
The group headed to downtown Portland into the KOIN tower to play on All Classical Radio, performing on the Thursday’s @ Three show hosted by Christa Wessel, to help towards their mission. “We listen to All Classical radio and you always hear these people about here, but we were about to actually meet them and actually play in the same space, so that was really exciting,” exclaimed D’Souza.
For D’Souza, who is also Editor-in-Chief for WBN, it was more than just the music though that brought the experience together.
“As someone who loves journalism, and also loves music, this was the perfect marriage between that. With the radio show and then also getting to perform music that I absolutely love, all in one thing in this brand new space, it was the perfect day.”
The performance being broadcasted wouldn’t be the only difference, though. As opposed to the usual stage with a large amount of space for a larger audience and more echoing, the studio was smaller and had about 20 people there in person, which changed the performance, and how the music and notes were played.
“I think every performance opportunity that I get allows me to learn different things about how I can improve myself and how I can improve how I work with other people,” said Brookfield.
Overall, an impressive and uncommon opportunity for two talented high school musicians came along to continue improving on their craft, and a great opportunity to provide local people more exposure to the incredible, diverse and eternally underrated art that is classical music.