Last Thursday evening the All-Island Elementary Orchestra performed at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center. The concert featured students from second through eighth grade. The beginner orchestra set the tone of the event, playing both “Song for Christine” and “Diving D Challenge” by Michael Gillespie. Advanced orchestra followed, with an impressive rendition of “Finale from Symphony 10 in G Major, K. 74” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This group also played “Dance of the Samodivi” by Soon Hee Newbold, and “Sinfonia in A minor” by Georg Philipp Telemann, and finally, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got that Swing” by Duke Ellington. Between each group, the musicians filed on and off the stage in a very mature, organized fashion, encouraged by hearty applause.
Last but certainly not least, the intermediate orchestra group played “Into the Deep” by Nancy Jephcote, conductor for the beginner and intermediate groups. Before conducting the students smoothly through the song, Jephcote noted that she wrote it for the group, and accompanied them on her own violin.
The event closed with the intermediate orchestra’s second and final song, “D String Boogie” by Michael Sweeney, and a well-deserved round of applause from family and friends.
