Herald photo by Carol South
Members of the Traverse Youth Orchestras warmed up before a concert Monday evening at Traverse City West High School. The annual fall concert featured more than 100 musicians from around the region ranging in age from elementary school to high school.
Youthful enthusiasm
Youth orchestras play everything from 'Zombie' music to kazoos
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Singing, whistling, laughing and using their string instruments for percussion, members of the Traverse Area Junior Orchestra lit up the auditorium of Traverse City West High School with "Curse of the Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space." During the "End Pin Rag," the group wielded whistles, noisemakers and kazoos, taking another offbeat approach to the usually staid world of classical music.
These pieces were part of the 27-member string orchestra's set during the annual fall concert of the Traverse Youth Orchestras Monday evening. The Traverse Area Kids Orchestra, the Traverse Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Honors String Quartet also performed during the concert.
The dedicated young musicians in the Youth Orchestras - nearly 100 in all - range in age from elementary school to college. They are drawn from schools around the region, coming from as far away as Manistee and Bear Lake.
Throughout the school year, they devote an evening a week to rehearsing with their respective group. That does not take into account the countless hours of practice or private lessons on their own.
For many who are either too young to play in their school's orchestra program or attend a school that does not have an orchestra program, the concert is a chance to showcase their hard work and talent.
"It's fun to perform," said Jordan Thomas, 13, an eighth-grade student at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School who has been playing the violin for three years. "The violin is expressive, it shows people what you can do."
Ellie Walters is in the fourth-grade at Eastern Elementary School. While the Traverse City Area Public Schools system offers orchestras at both the junior high and high school levels, she is too young to participate. For now, private lessons, practice and her Kids Orchestra rehearsals allow her to progress toward her goal of being a professional musician.
"I like the music, it's challenging," said Walters, a first year concertmaster for the Kids Orchestra.
With three years of violin and piano lessons under her belt, she is undaunted by performing on stage - well, almost.
"I'm pretty cool, not too nervous when I'm on stage," she noted before Monday night. "The concert is much different than a rehearsal, it's fun, too."
Monday evening's concert also featured a number where members of the Junior Orchestra and the Youth Symphony teamed up for a number, the younger musicians pleased to share a stage with the more mature ones.
"It's a nice experience for the younger students to work with the high school orchestra," said Liz Bert, director of the Youth Orchestra and the Junior Orchestra for the past three years. "The idea is to give them exposure to playing with the full orchestra; it is a self serving thing, so if they're excited about it they want to continue."
Bert acknowledged everyone's hard work throughout the fall, pleased at her student's progress and accomplishments.
"The kids have done a lot of really solid work this semester and I'm proud of them," she noted. "There isn't a kid in the orchestra who hasn't improved, they are just all involved in doing the best that they can."
Sifting through songs and choosing the literature for the concert is one of the many fun components of being director, Bert noted.
"You just hone it down and figure out what you want to do that is appealing," she said. "I think about it all the time, what might be nice, and look through music libraries and research pieces."
An experienced musician herself, Bert has been the principal cellist for the Traverse Symphony Orchestra for 20 years. She is determined to not only find music that kids can have fun with and learn from, but pieces that she likes as well.
"There's too much good stuff out there to do something that's boring," Bert noted.
