The night opened with nothing but an empty campus, but it didn’t matter as students, families and members of the community begin filing into the theater at 7 p.m. By 7:30 p.m., the theater was ready for a night of classical music and surprises.

The night’s events opened with the Skyline College Concert Choir, performing “Sumer Is Icumen In” (“Summer Is Coming In”). This was followed by many more pieces, such as “My Heart Longs For Springtime” by Michael Praetorius, “Springtime Mantleth Every Bough” by Thomas Morley, and ” ‘S Wonderful” by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

The Skyline Concert Choir was led by Professor Jude Navari, who has a Ph.D in composition from U.C. Berkeley. Navari currently teaches music theory, musicianship, music appreciation and voice here at Skyline College.

As the night continued, music filled the air. The choir performances were followed by a ten-minute intermission before the Skyline Concert Band took the stage to perform three pieces, “The Thunderer” by John Philip Sousa, “A Song of the Sea” by Rex Mitchell and “Carnival of Venice” by Giulio Briccialdi.

The Skyline College Concert Band was lead by Zachary Bruno, who is also director of the band and assistant professor of music. He is the newest member of the music faculty at Skyline, and the night marked his first full year here.

Special guest of the night Sami Alsalloom lead the concert band on flute as they played “Carnival of Venice.” Alsalloom is an16-year-old high-school student at Jefferson High School in Daly City and has performed with numerous ensembles throughout the Bay Area.

The band’s performances were followed by a joint performance by the choir and band of acts two and three of the “The Tender Land Suite” by Aaron Copland. These performances marked the end of the night’s musical events, but it seemed that the band and choir, as well as the crowd, were all eager to not let the night come to an end.

But before the final piece of the night was performed, Bruno took the time to thank the audience for coming to see them choir and band perform. It was then that Bruno was surprised by members of the band with a symphony music stand in celebration of his first year here at Skyline.

“It was so heart warming,” Bruno said of receiving the band’s gift. “I can’t even begin to describe how kind and thoughtful that was to me. And we’ve developed a great relationship over the past year.”

The final piece of the night was “America the Beautiful.” The concert was followed by a reception, where band, choir and community members were able to mix and greet one another.

“It’s great, getting to be here for a year,” Bruno said during the after-show reception. “It feels like it’s gone by so quickly. It’s a great place to work, to meet new friends and to participate in all things musical.”

The night proved to be popular. The audience clapped with approval and both the choir and band enjoyed the show. Everyone congratulated one another and celebrated at the reception.

“It was awesome,” said in-coming ASSC President Jose Luis Sanchez. “I’ve never been to something like this before, and I truly enjoyed myself.”