This year’s spring musical, Oklahoma!, the first musical from the team of Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers, takes place outside the town of Claremore in the early 1900’s and centers on the romance between cowboy Curly Mclain and farm girl Laurey Williams.  Aside from the actors, there are many other components of the show  make it a success, one of these being the pit orchestra.

For those of you who don’t know, the pit orchestra is the group of musicians who accompany the actors in the play.  It is called a “pit orchestra” because the group plays under the stage where it cannot be seen, in an area known as the “pit.”  This group of PC musicians, all members of the band, have been working extremely hard, learning the music and practicing it individually, as well as together, for weeks.

Dr. Cicconi, the new band director from Frost School of Music, loves working with the pit orchestra and is determined to make it sound as great as possible.  The difficult part for him, as a director, is that everyone is busy with other extracurricular activities.  But, he is determined to surmount any difficulties, and strives for perfection. “I want the pit orchestra to sound like a Broadway group,” stated Dr. C. “I feel like we are going to peak at the right time.”

What makes pit orchestra so difficult? The musicians have to learn a whole book of songs within the span of two months with a limited amount of rehearsal time.  Additionally, there are cuts that have to be added to the music, and many key changes are made that make the musical score more challenging than the typical pieces we play in concert band. Senior Noah Grass says, “The pit’s hilariously dysfunctional. Between the 7:30 practices, the nail ridden ceilings, and playing the dream ballet four times, none of us really remember why we signed up or how we survived by the end of it.” All that music throughout the entirety of Oklahoma? Now you know that it was all thanks to the pit orchestra playing. Overall, it’s a great experience, and each year the pit orchestra gets to learn fun yet challenging music, and share it with the PC audience.