As Palatine High School continues its 150th celebration this year, its music department wanted to chime in with a unique celebration of its own, Consequently, department leaders created a special concert — taking place at 1 p.m. Sunday — that features all of its musical ensembles, including band, orchestra, choir and its mariachi band.
Palatine’s Music Department Chair Dung Pham directs the combined ensembles.
“We’re keenly aware that it’s Super Bowl Sunday, so it will last a little over an hour,” says Music Department Chair Dung Pham. “But this will be a very special moment to pause and acknowledge all the support for the arts over the years, as well as the legacy and inclusive culture of our school.”
The concert will take place in the school’s main gym, in order to accommodate the more than 250 students involved in the different ensembles. Each group will play its own selection before they all combine on the featured work which the department commissioned, This is Home, or Aqui es Hogar.
“Over the years, our music department has evolved and now includes a mariachi band,” Ms. Pham says. “While there are plenty of compositions written for band, orchestra and choir, there are none written to also include a mariachi band.”
Students in Palatine’s mariachi band perform with the rest of the ensembles.
Determined to feature a piece that unites all of their musicians, Ms. Pham and her department were connected with two-time Grammy nominated artist, Jose Hernandez, who is based in Las Vegas, to compose a new work and arrange it for all of Palatine’s ensembles.
“He’s a big proponent for mariachi education,” Ms. Pham says. “He’s known for his band Mariachi Sol de Mexico, but he also created an all-female mariachi band, Reyna de Los Angeles.”
While Hernandez composed the new work, the music department turned to singer/song writer Lisa Medina to compose the lyrics. Medina is a Palatine resident, whose husband, Tony, is principal of Palatine High School. But she is a popular performer in her own right and in 2024 debuted her album, Wishes, to a sold-out audience at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights.
All photos by Patrick DeGeorge/District 211
Turns out, Medina had help. Students came up with ideas for lyrics — in both English and Spanish — that represented the Palatine culture and experience. Working with the unique instrumentation and rhythm of Hernandez’s composition, Medina made the lyrics fit.
The commissioned work, This is Home, will be a featured highlight of the concert, but it won’t be the finale. Closing out the concert, these Palatine student musicians fittingly will perform the school’s legendary school song, Loyalty.
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