NEISD’s Evening With The Strings Festival
Epic sounds of orchestral strings erupts on the floor of the Virgil. T. Blossom athletic complex while the ears of overhead parents and family listen intently to the symphonic talent below. Hands bow frantically eager to impress the audience at the NEISD ‘Evening with the Strings’ festival.
Monday, April 8,the MacArthur, Johnson and Roosevelt high schools orchestras along with four middle schools and 19 local district elementary school’s strings programs covered the floor of the Blossom gym to perform highly prepared songs to showcase the high level of playing they have advanced to.
“It was intensely crowded to the point where we didn’t have any personal space, never the less room to play our instruments” performer Craig Adams(10) said. ” It was fun to listen to everyone and the songs they prepared but I had never seen so many violins in my life.”
The district orchestras collaborated and created the theme ” Dancing With The Strings” which incorporated dance themed orchestral pieces such as waltzes, tangos and all types of rumba found on a show such as ‘Dancing with the Stars’.
” The song Hoe-Down from Rodeo was my favorite thing we played”, Adams said.” It makes you want to dance and I knew the audience felt that way too when they started clapping along with the up beats”.
Along with Hoe-Down, the orchestra played “Dance Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saens, joined by the fifth graders at the end for the finale of the program.
“We played a watered down version of Dance Bacchanale so the beginning fifth grade students could keep up”, Adams said.” Even though it was slow it made it all worth it to hear how excited the little kids were to play with the big high school kids and play fancy music”.
The evening ended with a bittersweet goodbye from the seniors and an unofficial send off for the rest of their lives from their elementary, middle and high schools music teachers.
“I am sad because this is my last big orchestra performance”, performer Khadija Zakvi
(12) said.” They gave us a framed memory of our symphony experience”.
The performance occurs every other year but every performance the fine arts directors pull together to create a night of special memories for students in all grade levels and a warm goodbye to the leaving seniors.
