SOGO August 2012 Newsletter

SOGO

Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia 1629 22nd Ave SE, Olympia WA AUGUST 2012

Alex

2012-2013 Student Soloists

FAQ

2 Podium Talk - Maestro Welsh gives O

SOGO members a season overview.

Artistic Faculty Meeting Sunday, August 26, 1-3 p.m. Church Auditions Sunday, August 26, 4 p.m. Allison home 1 O Music Pick-up

Sunday, August 26, 4- 7 p.m. Allison home 3 Olympia Harbor Days O

September 1 & 2, 1-2 and 4-5 p.m.

Zoo & Performance Art - music in mime First Rehearsal Sunday, September 16, 3 or 5 p.m. ber 1 * Instrument Septem et full, by ee tick fr early, in a id r a p er fo Tuition * Music a vouch . u o rt y e c on will earn ason c GO se *Music stand to a SO *Pencil 1 Parent Meeting O

Vol 13 No. 1

Mallory

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ver 160 young musicians will open the 13th season of Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia. Sounds like the opening message to the start of the Olympics, but in Olympia, Washington! There are over 37 schools represent, including Thurston, Pierce, Lewis, Mason, and Cowlitz County’s. An amazing convergence, all these young people coming together to share one thing in common, their love of music.

Let the rehearsals begin on September 16. Conductors, coaches, board, and staff are busily preparing and getting ready for the downbeat of the first rehearsal. Musicians interested in picking-up and practicing their music ahead of rehearsal, can drop by the Allison home (1629 22nd Ave SE, Olympia) between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, August 26.

A sneak preview of the season for parents will commence on the day of the first rehearsal. Join us in the sanctuary of the First Christian Church Sunday, September 16, 4:45 p.m. (musicians attend too). You will be privy to all the exciting opportunities coming up this season. This will also be the only chance you will have to purchase SOGO tees at a one- time price of $5! Meet and visit with the artistic faculty, board, and staff and don’t forget that tuition is due in full (payment plans will also be accepted that day). Members paying tuition on or before September 1, receive a voucher for the price of one free ticket.

To successfully start your SOGO member off on good footing, please be sure to arrive 15-minutes early to the rehearsal to get situated and warmed up. Musicians will need their instrument, SOGO music (or pick it up in the box at rehearsal), pencil and very importantly, a music stand. If you have not already downloaded the SOGO Handbook, please be sure to because it includes a lot of information about practicing, rehearsals and concerts that will help your young musician get the most out of their musical experience with SOGO.

Sunday, September 16, 4:45 p.m.

Church sanctuary *Get your $5 SOGO TEE (one time offer) Here is to a great season, SO-GO! *Tuition due in full studentorchestras.org | studentorchestras@gmail.com

John Welsh MUSIC DIRECTOR

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t is that time of year again! We have been planning. As you might imagine, there is a lot of organizational work that goes on behind the scenes.

By now, repertoire has been chosen, music has been procured and prepared, rehearsal schedules have been finalized, new coaches as needed have been hired and soloists have been chosen. We need to make this all invisible to the students and parents, and hopefully we do. You just see the results.

I am always excited about a new season, and this one turns out to be special.

First of all, we have a lot of good music for the Conservatory Orchestra – music

by Mozart, Bizet, Beethoven, Hindemith, von Suppe, Gordon Jacob, Debussy and Liszt. I know the other conductors have chosen music and will let you know soon.

There are some changes that have occurred. Lantz Berets will assume the role as the conductor for the Debut Orchestra. April will assume the role as String Specialist with that group. Jeff Lund and I will be working together for the first Academy Orchestra concert. One of the more regrettable changes is that, due to the calendar and schedule time for the holiday season at the Washington Performing Arts Center, we will not be holding the Messiah Sing-Along this year.

Nutcracker performances go through Christmas Eve, taking up the auditorium.

But we have a plan to keep us busy through that time. I will explain that in a bit.

One of the great fun things we do every year is to decide what members of the groups have excelled in musical performance and select them to appear with the various orchestras. This year Alex Carlson will perform the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the Conservatory Orchestra on our November concert. Alex has had great success with this work at competitions and he will perform cadenzas that he has written. On the March concert, Mallory Halbert will perform Hindemith’s Trauermusik for Viola and Strings. These two soloists really are outstanding representatives of artistic development in which SOGO can proudly claim a contributing influence.

Last season we had a nationally recognized guest artist perform with us. It was truly an experience that expanded the musical horizons of our students. There was a highly successful chamber music event that brought students from Olympia High School together with an ensemble from SOGO and the SOGO Woodwind Quintet. We are going to continue that effort this year. One of my long time musical colleagues, David Johnson, will be joining us on our May concert to perform the Concerto No. 1 for Flute and Strings by Gordon Jacob. David is the founder of Clarion in Manila, Philippines. It is the premier chamber music organization in the Philippines and is a joint performance and music school organization. He will be in residence with us for two weeks and we will be scheduling chamber music activity of various sorts during his stay with us.

Now to tell you about a very busy November and December for Conservatory members – Chamber Music! Mrs. Rydholm and I have been busy dividing all of the members of the Conservatory Orchestra up into quintets, quartets, trios and small ensembles. We have selected repertoire for the groups and will be finalizing a schedule in the next few days. Chamber music is the core of musicianship and is essential for establishing a sense of working together to make music. We are excited about this new opportunity, and I know it will make a difference in our music making!

Thanks for your participation in SOGO, and most of all, thanks for the opportunity to work with your children!

GIFT WISH LIST

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ancy Shohet from the Boston Globe writes...

“As a longtime violin teacher and professional musician, first with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and currently as associate concertmaster for the Utah Symphony, Gerald Elias thought he might write a book for would-be professional musicians, covering the basics of violin technique as well as issues such as how to prepare for an audition. Yet he realized that if he had been handed a book like this when he was a young music student, ‘I would have fallen asleep in about five minutes,’ he said. But how to make an instructional manual for violinists a little more engrossing? Well, why not work in a whodunit murder mystery? … So in 2009, Elias published his first novel, ‘Devil’s Trill.’ A contract with St. Martin’s Press led to a second book, ‘Danse Macabre,’ and since then he has published two more, ‘Death and the Maiden’ and ‘Death and Transfiguration,’ all of which he calls ‘excursions into the dark side of the classical music world.’ … Elias concedes that his earlier idea of an instruction manual for violinists has more or less been sacrificed to the pursuit of murder mysteries, but he sees his approach within a greater context of novelists setting mysteries in very specific locales.”

7th and 8th graders respond to why music is important.…

“Music lifts up your soul and releases it.”

“Music is what moves everyone, and without it, life would be pointless.”

“Music is important because it can describe people, places, movies, or animals that words can’t. Without music, the world would have a hard time understanding other things.”

“Music is important because it helps you express yourself in ways that you can’t with normal talking.”

“Music is important to me because it gives me something to look forward to every day.”

The fun begins with HARBOR DAYS Saturday & Sunday, September 1 & 2!

ZOO

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here will be thousands attending the Olympia Harbor Days down at Percival Landing and you guessed it, SOGO “wildlife” will be present! SOGO Student Board and members of the orchestras will be featuring the Instrument Petting Zoo during the Olympia event. R.L. Ray Violin Shop will be supplying SOGO with instruments for kids of all ages at the Harbor Days to pluck and bow. The musicians will also present the “Art of Music” – music in mime! A great day of meeting people and engaging them in what SOGO does best, making music.

If you are a SOGO member and interested in helping at the Zoo and/or participating in the Art of Music, contact Student Board member Nolan Welch at np.welch@yahoo.com or Keadrin Dick at starburst-jelleefish@earthlink.net.

Why Pick Up Music Before The First Rehearsal?

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f you didn’t already know, music for the November concert can be picked up on August 26, three weeks prior to the first rehearsal on September 16. If you do so, you can have 3 weeks of additional practice heading into the new season. Now, SOGO doesn’t expect every student to pick up his of hers music early but, doing so, you have the chance to listen to a recording, practice difficult sections, and learn your part which can be a great advantage. After all, our conductors always say, “Home practice is for learning your part, group practice is for learning everybody else’s parts.”

Nolan Welch, Student Board

---------Thank you to all the parents who shared their time and energy with SOGO last season.

Thank you for your kindness, even on the rare occasions when you had to tell me “no.”

Thank you for completing the new volunteer form for the upcoming SOGO season.

Thank you for all the additional areas where you have agreed to help SOGO this year.

Thank you for caring enough about your kids and music to make SOGO possible!

Joan Armstrong, Volunteer Coordinator 360.459.7226 | g.c.armstrong@comcast.net

Oly HARBOR DAYS September 1 & 2 BEST KEPT SECRET?

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ike-minded people enjoy the SOGO experience, but time and time again we always hear, “I didn’t know about SOGO – how can I find out more?” You can be our mouthpiece in the community; lets let the secret out! Help by passing the word on about this youth orchestra experience, open to young musicians from second year experience through age 21. With three orchestras, there are age and skill appropriate groups where musicians can be placed in during the season.

If you know of a potential musician(s), please connect them with SOGO. Our next audition is Sunday, August 26. Have them call 360-352-1438 or visit the website to sign-up for an appointment time.

The following is a little history you might not know, which makes great talking points with families considering SOGO for their young musician.

• SOGO PAST In August of 2000 two ambitious local high school music students, with the help of other young musicians, their families and music teachers, created SOGO. Complete with a mission statement, budget of $30,000, rehearsal space, conductors and coaches, music, and 90 young musicians, SOGO had its first rehearsal just six weeks later. Ample energy and a fresh vision for building a student-led organization make SOGO unique.

The first season, two orchestras were created and performed three concerts each. Other performances included the sold out SOGO HO HO Brass Choir holiday concert, a free-to-the-public Messiah Sing-Along, and small ensembles performing at the spring Arts Walk in downtown Olympia. A generous financial gift also allowed the advanced orchestra an opportunity to tour the Olympia, Tumwater and North Thurston schools to perform for entire student bodies.

• SOGO PRESENT Now in our13th season, we have 160 young musicians in three orchestras with tuition averaging $325. There are 4 conductors, 13 coaches, and 3 part-time staff members. The board and student board are responsible for overseeing the continued success of the organization and a budget of $109,000. The musicians rehearse weekly with concerts presented throughout the year at various venues.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID OLYMPIA, WA PERMIT NO. 358

STUDENT ORCHESTRAS OF GREATER OLYMPIA

1629 22ND AVE SE | OLYMPIA WA 98501 www.studentorchestras.org

SOGO 2012-2013 Season Sponsors

Olympic Dermatology & Laser Clinic Tumwater Eye Clinic & VUE Olympia Federal Savings R.L. Ray Violin Shop Salon Salon

EXECUTIVE BOARD Colleen Welch, President Jilyna Dick, Vice President Peter Despot, Secretary John Fleckenstein, Treasurer BOARD Joyce Allen Joan Armstrong Brad Carlson Alison Coppock Julie Evans Doug Ford Anne Hammond Ginny Nordhorn Dana Phelps Amy Schutte Jennifer Taft Kirk Veis STUDENT BOARD Ella Bushnell, violin Keadrin Dick, cello Maggie Taft, clarinet Nolan Welch, cello MUSIC DIRECTOR John Welsh ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Greg Allison ADMINISTRATIVE Krina Allison, Executive Dir. Pat Kabler, Finance Dir. Mary Jo Rydholm, Lib. Doug Ford, Photos

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What meaning do the following DATES have?

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SOGO 2012-2013 Season

SEPTERMBER 16

NOVEMBER What will

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$ 5 Get you????

The most amazing SOGO tee shirt. This one time deal is only offered at the Parent Meeting!