Clarkston HS Orchestra Fall Concert 2023

Clarkston HS Orchestra Fall Concert 2023
1. DeKalb County Blues by Walt Statton - a fun Strolling Strings piece written by Walt Statton specifically for our students. We only had one opportunity to try this while walking on stage. They did pretty good!
2. Variations of Time by Ray A. Kuutti - a sound scape exploring the concept of time based on the chord progression used by Hans Zimmer in "Inception". This time with only strings, no percussion.
3. Pennington Appletree in the Fall by Ray A. Kuutti - Waynesville, North Carolina hosts a great artist: Teresa Pennington. I was inspired by a series of paintings she had created of a tree by a river in the mountains in four different seasons. I used the rhythm of the words as a starting point and tried to capture the feeling of the season that the painting evoked in me.
4. Viva la Vida by Coldplay - the students had requested this song in particular. Fun but also tricky.
5. Variations of Time by Ray A. Kuutti - now we add the beginners and percussion: chimes large and spell, bells, and the gong.
6. Cham Cham Cham by Sabhir Khan - a fun dance song to reflect the rich musical traditions of our students.
7. Firoliralera - another representation of our diverse musicality, I took the song from their lesson book and explored variations of major/minor and tempo to create different moods. One could imagine the living preparing for Dia de los Muertos, the visitations of those who have passed on, and the celebration they share.
8. The Relic of Feldcroft by Ray A. Kuutti - I have greatly enjoyed playing Hogwarts Legacy and we are working on incorporating elements into our current orchestra movie we are filming. This piece is meant to represent the Relic of Feldcroft from the game returning to the movie we are working on.
9. Ode to Joy by Ludwig von Beethoven - starts out easy but I gave the more experienced students the 1st Violin and Viola parts from the original in the second half. Very difficult! Timing didn't work out perfectly but the spirit is there.
Our orchestra is reborn every semester. We have no middle school program to feed us so we start our own musicians in high school. So about half of the students are true beginners while most of the rest have only played a year or less. We work hard and accomplish a lot quickly but there's always so much more to learn.