On March 10 the Chamber Strings orchestra attended and hosted the Eastshore League Orchestra I Festival at Liberty.
It’s no question that both the Chamber strings and the Patriot Philharmonic Orchestras have had a ton going on throughout the month of March.
There were numerous concerts and festivals including a holiday concert that featured various types of music such as jazz and festive classical music. However, one of the most prestigious festivals attended was The Eastshore League Orchestra I Festival.
The festival is comprised of various different high school orchestras in the area, including schools in the district and outside of it. All of the schools that attended this festival had to qualify for it ensuring high skill level technique and beautifully performed pieces. The orchestras at this festival got the chance to perform for a panel of admired and highly trained judges. The orchestras were then judged on a scale of one to four based off of six categories: tone, intonation, time, accuracy, style/articulation and interpretation. After performing for the judges they then attended a thirty minute clinic to pick up new skills and improve on old ones.
This was the Chamber Strings first year attending this festival.
“The fact that we attended this festival shows how much we have improved as a group and how all of our hard work has paid off so far,” sophomore Kacey Ton said.
They did not just perform at the festival but were also tasked with hosting the festival themselves.
“Having so many different orchestras at Liberty was a little bit chaotic. However, as an orchestra we did a very good job at tackling the task of keeping them under control and I personally really enjoyed the hosting aspect of this festival,” freshman Andrena Kruzich said.
Along with gaining leadership skills from hosting this festival, the Chamber Strings also picked up many new skills, not just from the judges but from the other high schools.
“I really enjoyed hearing the other high schools perform and they were all really amazing. It was nice to watch them preform because we could look at the things they were doing differently and then use some of those things to improve our orchestra,” sophomore Tammy Nguyen said.
The orchestra preformed two classical pieces and walked away with a tool box of new skills and a leadership experience to last a lifetime.
“Overall we did an amazing job at this festival and got exposed to so many new ideas and improvements that we can practice,” Kruzich said. “I thought it was a really exciting festival and even though it was tiring it was very beneficial and worth it.”