Music soared through the air as people began finding their seats at the last annual La Soirée de Musique, presented by SHS’s own French Club. The Soiree is a chance for all students — not just mthose necessarily in the French Club, or even those who take French — to showcase their musical talents in front of an appreciative audience of Scarsdale residents, and, of course, to enjoy French food.

The festival started with a reception in the Little Theater, after which guests were directed up to the music tower for performances by Scarsdale students Naoko Nakajima ’16, Kelsey Chin ’18, Anshi Barmecha ’16, Axel Ahdritz ’18, Spencer Mann ’19, Issak Greene ’16, Christian Bishop ’16, Ben Stevens ’16, Harry Liu ’19, Morgan Cochrane ’17, Alexa Kishner ’16 Vishnu Srinivas ’20, Lari Ho ’19, Anika Agarwal ’19, Abigail Nishiwaki ’19, and Rachel Haber ’16. The festival, which is usually solely classical music, expanded this year to include pop and original compositions as well. They included the band Ultrasound, which is made up of Mann, Greene, Bishop, and Stevens, and Kishner even presented an original song.

During intermission, the audience was served desserts, including lemon bars and other goodies baked by French club president Nicole Romano. They even had a birthday cake. “It was Madame Bell’s mom’s birthday, and Madame Bell’s whole family was there,” Nakul Srinivas ’17 said, smiling. “So that was nice.”

This was the fourth year of the Soiree, and this year the audience totaled about forty people. “It’s a fundraiser for the French club, because all of our events are free and open to students who speak all languages. You may have been to the Mardi Gras, for example,” Srinivas said. The club hopes to expand the event even more next year by advertising more in school and getting more students to come.

All in all, though, this year was quite a success with a variety of talented musicians, delicious desserts, and fun coming together to celebrate their club.

by: Maya Bharara