The Legacy orchestras and bands performed concerts in February. The band performed on the 18th and orchestra on the 20th.

Orchestra 

The Legacy Concert orchestra performed Brandenburg Concerto No.5 by J.S Bach with the 8th-grade chamber orchestra from Westlake Middle School. Symphonic Orchestra also played with the 8th-grade orchestra and concert orchestra for the finale, a piece called Dragonfly by Doug Spata. We interviewed the orchestra directors from both schools to hear their thoughts on the performance.  

From Mrs Duford, the orchestra director from Westlake Middle School:

1. What piece is your favourite to give to students from this concert?

 My personal favourite is Brandenburg No. 5 by Bach.  I have studied and played a lot of early music from the Baroque Period and have performed this piece countless times, so it’s really fun to share with my students and see them enjoy the baroque style and Bach’s amazing music.  I also love “Jupiter” from Holst’s The Planets. Our orchestra has fallen in love with the rich melodies in this piece, and we are super excited to play this with Legacy Orchestras because playing this beautiful piece with a big orchestra is going to be such an amazing experience!

2. How have the students improved from the first time they got this music? 

 Our Westlake Chamber Orchestra has been working very hard this year.  They have prepared a lot of music not just for this concert but for our concert at Westlake, which is only a few days after this one.  I think the most notable improvement from these students is in their ability to play so many different styles of music, which means that students are learning more and more techniques with their bowing to get different sounds for each piece.  The bow for strings players is really our voice, and learning how to express ourselves in different ways is what creates all the emotion and feeling in our music.

3. What are some things the orchestra can improve on? 

String playing is hard.  Probably the most challenging part of string playing is learning to play in tune ALL the time.  Our instruments don’t have keys or frets to help guide our intonation or ability to play in tune. Playing in tune takes years of practice and we are constantly striving to be consistent, especially as we grow the range of notes we play on our instruments, and shifting up the fingerboard to higher notes.

4. How do you feel about putting concert orchestra from Legacy and the 8th-grade orchestra together to perform? 

This is such a great opportunity!  I am thrilled to join together with the orchestras at Legacy.  We have a great partnership between our two schools. Many Legacy orchestra students volunteer to come over to help our beginning 6th graders once a week.  How cool is that?! Bringing the Chamber Orchestra over to Legacy is so awesome because it gives our 8th graders a chance to meet students in Legacy orchestra and gives them a glimpse into how fun and rewarding orchestra can be at the high school level.  On a personal note, I love getting to see previous Westlake orchestra students who are now playing in orchestra over at Legacy. It’s great to see how they’ve grown and they’re still some of my favorite people so I love getting to hang and visit with them for a bit :).  We are so looking forward to this fun opportunity and plan on making this a new tradition for years to come! Wolverines & Bolts Unite!

From Dr. Ebert, orchestra director from Legacy: 

1. What piece is your favourite to give to students from this concert?

Lu Harrison suite no 2. It’s an unusual piece to perform as not many orchestras perform it. 

1. How have the students improved from the first time they got this music? 

It’s slow in the way the orchestra has improved but given more time, the orchestra does improve with things like notes and rhythm.

1. What are some things the orchestra can improve on? 

Retaining members. Students stay in the orchestra for a year or two then drop out. 

1. How do you feel about putting the orchestras from Legacy and the 8th-grade orchestra together to perform?  

We should have been doing this longer so we can give the 8th graders some notion of where they are going to be in the next five years. 

Band

The Legacy Jazz, Symphonic, and Concert Bands performed multiple pieces on February 18th. The Jazz band performed Birdland by and Another Life by. The Symphonic band performed Chimes of Liberty by, With Each Sunset by, and Lightning Field. The Concert Band performed The Golden Thirteenth, Rippling Watercolors, and Techno Blade. We interviewed the Band Director, Mr Stansberry, of his thoughts on the concert.    

1. What piece is your favorite to give to students from this concert?  I actually really enjoy all of the pieces we are doing.  The students have great music that will be a part of this concert!

2. How have the students improved from the first time they got this music? 

The students have improved incredibly!  The first time we read the music we were not able to play through all of it.  Now, we can play through all of it and they are making great music!

3. What are each of the band’s strengths and weaknesses? 

I think our strengths are that the students are great people and great musicians and they want to make great music together.  They listen and adjust and are really growing as musicians. I don’t think we have any weaknesses overall. Each student does have areas that they can improve upon and I hope that they are all working on their individual weaknesses.