With the whole theater filled to the brim with audience members, the Santa Barbara City College Symphony performed beautiful and inspiring music for their “Star Wars Suite For Orchestra” fall concert, directed by James Mooy.

A variety of woodwinds, string, brass and percussion instruments were showcased and sounded in unison throughout the whole concert.

There were seven compositions performed, two of which were suites, and one that was the world premiere of student Cody Anderson’s “Carpinteria Suite.” 

In the “Carpenteria Suite” composition, there were seven different suites that all had very different meanings, but told a story of a sunrise to a sunset which made audience members continually clap their hands in gratitude for the piece. 

“Overall all of the pieces fit together, it’s terrific,” local community and audience member John Brunner said.

Anderson spent six months writing the “Carpinteria Suites” for City College’s Symphony. Having his first composition performed, Anderson awaited his moment. 

“It was surprisingly emotional, just letting it wash over and feel like, oh my gosh, this is something that people are playing.” Anderson said.

Sitting in the audience, observing the orchestra, what grabbed my eye was the diversity in generations in the symphony. There were younger men and women, there were middle aged people, and there were also elderly people all doing what they love. 

The symphony was made up of students and community members to help make it more advanced. 

Every musician in the orchestra played a significant role. The strings and the winds filled up the room with electric and powerful sounds that bounced off each wall. 

During the second act of the show the director James Mooy announced the Star Wars part of the concert. 

As soon as the “Main Title” started to arise in the theater, there was a wave of nostalgia that overcame the audience and I was immediately mesmerized.

All of the songs performed from the “Star Wars Suite For Orchestra” sounded even better than what I have listened to in the movies. The orchestra included so many different bells and whistles to make the piece feel whole and complete.

In this showcase I felt as if the string instruments were the stars of this show. The choices in the compositions were amazing, however there was a lack of presence in the horns and trumpets in every song. When the horns and trumpets were playing, it made the orchestra come together. 

Seeing the City College Symphony was life changing, every single person was in the moment listening to what I thought was breathtaking music. 

At the end of the performance the whole Orchestra was met with a standing ovation from the audience for around three minutes. 

This was the symphony’s last show of the semester. They will have another concert next May.

“This is terrific having a huge crowd here to appreciate our music,” Mooy said.

As they say in the theater “Bravo, Brava.”