Once the orchestra completed their tuning, the first conductor, Scott A. Stewart walked onto the stage and without a word began to take the musicians through the first piece entitled Noisy Wheels of Joy, by Eric Whitacre. The piece began very softly, with a brief clarinet solo. The clarinet solo was very fluid, and the tone color was bright, with the exception of a very loud, and accidental, "squeak". I had to remind myself that these were, indeed, just high school student, and not professionals. In fact, this entire piece was very light, and cheery, with much use of the xylophone by the percussion section. The composer for this piece, Eric Whitacre, described the circumstances to which he had written this piece to the audience. As a member of the ASCAP, he, as well as other members, were asked to write down the name of a movie that they enjoyed and enter the name into a hat. What they pulled out, was what they had to write a piece about. Noisy Wheels of Joy was written because Mr. Whitacre pulled "101 Dalmatians" out of the hat, and hence the light and cheerful tone to the piece.