The Lexington High School Pit Orchestra (Pit) recently wrapped up their highly anticipated performance of the school’s musical production, Guys and Dolls, which ran from May 7-9. The musical featured several songs sung by actors, including dance numbers, each accompanied by the Pit’s onstage performance throughout the entire show. While the actors shone through singing and acting, Pit musicians worked tirelessly, starting in late February, to provide the live soundtrack.
What makes Pit a unique experience from other ensembles and classes at LHS is that most members have their own individual parts.
“When you’re a member of the Pit Orchestra, you are a soloist for your part. Nobody else does what you do,” Toby Forman, a band teacher and director of the Pit Orchestra, said.
Forman explained that the selection system for Pit ensures that everyone gets a fair chance, and priority is given to older students in higher-level bands or orchestras, like seniors in Wind Ensemble or Chamber Orchestra.
“It’s important to me that anybody who is both deeply committed to our music program and interested in being a part of the Pit Orchestra has that opportunity at least one time before they graduate from Lexington High School,” Forman said.
Thanks to this process, signups for Pit are relatively simple without requiring auditions.
“The selection process is just basically signing up,” Malcolm Fox, a senior bassist in Pit, explained. “Mr. Forman and Mx. Jayson post a thing in Google Classroom that says to sign up for Pit Orchestra, and they tell you what the musical is and what instruments they need.”
One special requirement is that many members have to play several instruments due to limited space, which allows students to try playing new instruments.
“I had to learn a new instrument for the musical, which was pretty cool. But that was pretty specific because the pit is so small, everybody needs to be playing multiple instruments in order to physically fit inside,” Leah Kim, a junior in Pit who plays clarinet, piccolo, and flute, said.
Students also appreciated the unique social environment brought by the Pit Orchestra, which brought both band and orchestra players together.
“In Pit, you get to be combined with people from all the different bands. I think that’s just a really cool experience because you get to meet a bunch of new people and not the same 50 people that you’re with every day,” Leah Kim noted.
What sets Pit apart is its intensive collaboration with the musical crew, where members must coordinate their live performance with actors and respond to changes during the show.
“It’s a big team effort. We aren’t just off on our own; we have to be totally synced up with the actors and the tech crew. If a lighting cue changes or an actor moves differently, the music has to follow that,” David Kim, a sophomore and clarinet player in Pit, said.
Fox discussed his favorite scene from the musical, “Havana,” where the main character, Sky Masterson, takes his love interest, Sarah Brown, from New York out to a restaurant in Havana.
“I really like Havana . . . it’s basically just a dance number where everyone’s dancing and we get to play a bunch of Latin music. I love Latin music, so I just get to play that with the band, and it’s really fun,” Fox said.
For those looking to join, Pit is an enjoyable but intense time commitment.
“You definitely have to be ready to put in the work . . . You have to spend a lot of time outside of school just getting the notes down because it’s a lot of music to learn in a short time,” David Kim concluded.
