Virginia’s District XII 2007 Senior Regional Orchestra (SRO)

1st Trumpet-Stephen Moser, 1st Clarinet-Sarah Dickson, 1st Flute-Alyson Frazier, Cello-Michael Nelson, Violin-Cecelia Lam, Bass-Nicky Smith, Cello-Leah Yi, Violin-Tony Zhang, 1st chair/2nd Violin-Elizabeth Ghias, Violin-Deena Rizkalla, Violin-Sachiko Hanamura.

MHS Talent Takes on the 21st and 20th Centuries:  From Spiderman to Shostakovich

Eleven musicians from the McLean High School Orchestra and the Band participated in a challenging and exciting District XII Senior Regional Orchestra (SRO) concert, in its 47th season this year, at Hayfield Secondary School on November 10.  Each of the 11 had succeeded at a very demanding and competitive audition in September to win their orchestra 'chairs'--and in fact, each of the 3 MHS band members were awarded first chair for their respective instruments: clarinet, flute, and trumpet and an orchestra member taking 1^st chair 2^nd violins.

They couldn't know what they were in for:  the SRO Guest Conductor this year, Kim Allen Kluge (Music Director of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra), selected the original Spiderman Suite from the motion picture, as well as the remarkably difficult and fast-paced Shostakovich Symphony #12.  The latter, composed of four movements and lasting 50 minutes, allowed breaks only to turn pages!  The musicians received the music barely 2 weeks before the concert to practice on their own, then had November 9 and 10 to rehearse under Director Kluge's guidance. It was a terrific performance--truly impressive, considering such a short but obviously very intense amount of rehearsal.  In the words of Maestro Kluge, "These musicians are awesome in their display of astonishing technical agility and equally astonishing maturity of feeling and depth".  He added that the "rarely played Shostakovich piece was daunting to even the best professional orchestras". Said one tired MHSO musician about the experience,  "it was long, but I would do it all over again."         All 11 did MHS proud--BRAVO, kids!!!!