Monday, November 4, 2013

Largo from New World

Our first concert is in just a few short weeks! I've arranged several pieces for the concert (from full orchestra, to string quartet, to percussion ensemble) including Dvorak's Largo from the New World Symphony for small string ensemble. Kim Mai and I introduced it only a few weeks ago, and the kids have picked it up quickly and eagerly.

 
The purpose of the arrangement is to combine our senior strings playing melodic parts, with our new beginners playing open string parts. This gives the beginners the "El Sistema experience" of playing in a large ensemble almost immediately after starting the instrument.

This video also speaks to three of our main challenges, attendance, punctuality and retention. The group should actually be twice as big, but for one reason or another, half the kids are missing, their instruments sitting untouched in the storage room.

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