Orchestra Page Index

Articles About Orchestral Activities
CMEA Bay Section Festivals
Links

Orchestra Notes

May, 2007

I sincerely hope that your students and you had an enjoyable and profitable experience at the CMEA festivals this spring. I especially hope that your groups had the opportunity to hear other ensembles perform. As buses become more expensive to rent and more difficult to schedule, and as the time devoted to state and AP testing impinges more and more on our spring teaching, being able to take time to savor the festival experience becomes increasingly more challenging.

If the quality of orchestral ensembles in schools has a cyclic nature, surely we are on an upswing. Several programs were wonderful some years back and are still wonderful, but I am impressed with the programs that I remember as struggling a few years back and have blossomed in the last year or two. Our feeder programs may have improved or our boosters may have become more determined, but I credit our networking as a major reason for success. Having conductor friends come in for clinics and participating in exchanges with other schools does so much to motivate our students to progress and to have greater pride and stake in our ensembles. A second perspective (even if it is the same as ours) seems to carry more weight than added rehearsals or new warm-up routines. I suggest that next year we start even earlier to create such collaborations, win-win situations for sure.

Another school year has whirled by. I know that we all look forward to some summer unwinding before the cycle begins again to prepare for a new year. For recharging batteries, you might find the right summer conference or workshop at internet sites such as http://www.astaweb.com. For students who are looking for fun music camps you might direct them to http://www.mysummercamps.com/camps/Arts and http://www.johnsonstring.com/summer01/ SUMMER_CAMPS05.htm#CA

Have a wonderful summer. See you in the fall.

John Felder
Orchestra Representative

Internet Links for Orchestra Directors:

• American String Teachers Association. Site for ASTA and the National School Orchestra Association.
• Association of California Symphony Orchestras. The Association of California Symphony Orchestras provides leadership and services to orchestras of California and the region encouraging and supporting their artistic, organizational and fiscal development.
• Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
• California American String Teachers Association. State association affiliated with the National String Orchestra Association.
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
• Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. The CYSO publishes a comprehensive guide to college music programs.
• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
• Cleveland Orchestra.
• CODA. The California Orchestra Director's Association affiliated with the National String
  Orchestra Association.
• Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
• Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra.
• Mark Corey's Index. Links to a variety of sites for instrumental music educators.
• Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
• Kato Havas Association. This web site is about The New Approach to string playing pioneered by Kato Havas.
• K-12 Resources for Music Educators. Valuable resources for music educators and students of all areas and educational levels. Includes orchestra links.
• London Symphony Orchestra.
• Louisville Youth Orchestra.
• Maryland Symphony Orchestra.
• New Century Chamber Orchestra. Bay Area Chamber Orchestra performing in Palo Alto, Berkeley, San Francsico, and San Rafael.
• New England Philharmonic.
• New York Philharmonic.
• New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
• Orchestralist. An international forum for conductors, composers, players, and their colleagues in the orchestra business.
• Orchestra Sonoma. Rohnert Park Chamber Orchestra.
• Orchestra Web Sites. Links to orchestra web sites all over the world.
• Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. Specializes in ragtime, vaudeville, silent movies, and dance hall music.
• Philadelphia Orchestra Website.
• Portland Symphony Orchestra.
• Redwood Symphony. A community orchestra based at Cañada College in Redwood City, California
• School Band and Orchestra Magazine. Periodical for music educators.
• Symphony Silicon Valley. Website for the sucessor to the San Jose Symphony.
• San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Includes links to other orchestra websites.
• Santa Fe Chamber Music. The Santa Fe Music Festival, founded in 1972, celebrates the art of chamber music through a summer season of over 80 events, new commissioned works, education and outreach programs and a winter/spring trio of concerts by leading musicians and composers.
• The Santa Fe Symphony. Continuing Thirteen Years of Fine Music!
• Seattle Symphony.
• Stanford Symphony Orchestra.
• Suzuki Association of the Americas. Website devoted to the Suzuki Method of string teaching.