Greenwich Symphony Orchestra entertained more than 1,700 fourth- and fifth-graders in two hour-long performances of a concert tailored to youthful tastes on April 19.
The audience gathered at Greenwich High School’s Performing Arts Center comprised students from public and private schools in town.
“Catch a Rising Star” featured solo performances by three rising teen-aged virtuosi: pianist Meagan Lee performed the Scherzo of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2; cellist Elizabeth Jones of Greenwich played the Adagio of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Opus 85; and violinist Yuqing Li, performed the Allegro non troppo from Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. Both Meagan and Yuqing live in the New York City area and attend the pre-college division of Manhattan School of Music. Elizabeth, who lives in Greenwich, attends Greens Farms Academy and will enter the Harvard/New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program in September. All three teen-age students are veterans of international competitions and music festivals.
The concerts were conducted and emceed by the Symphony’s music director, Stuart Malina. Maestro Malina maintained a lively dialogue with the audience as he explained the composers’ use of a recurring rhythmic element to bind a piece together as a coherent whole.
The enthusiastic crowd participated by clapping the rhythmic patterns, and even chanting “Let’s Go, Mets!” to Maestro Malina’s cues. By the concert’s finale, the overture to William Tell, the audience became its own percussion section with clapping and bouncing on their seats to the familiar score.
Also on the program were Glinka’s overture to Ruslan and Ludmila, Morning Mood from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, and Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms.
Dr. Sandra Heikel, Coordinator for Programs and Performances for the Greenwich Symphony in Greenwich Schools and Young People’s Concerts, expressed her delight with the successful concerts and logistics in bringing together so many students. “The students were truly captivated by the exceptional skills of the young musicians and the Symphony professionals.”
Dr. Heikel also acknowledged the significant contribution of the music teachers who had ably prepared the students with the curriculum she had designed months in advance of the event. She further praised the support of the Greenwich Symphony, indicating that “we are indebted to the Greenwich Symphony Board of Directors for underwriting much of the program as they have for decades in partnership with the Greenwich Public School District to provide this invaluable experience for all fourth- and fifth-graders.”
The concert was the second special student event by the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra in a month. On March 29, Bethany Fuscaldo, GHS’s Orchestra Director, conducted a Side-by-Side Concert, where the high school orchestra’s student musicians performed seated on stage with members of the Greenwich Symphony in an evening of music by Arturo Márquez and Franz von Suppé.
The Greenwich Symphony Orchestra presents an annual series of five weekend concerts from September to April. For more information visit https://www.greenwichsymphony.org.