Area High School Students To Collaborate On Strings Concert Thursday At WPHS
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WHEELING - Students from area high schools will collaborate to provide musical enjoyment this week, and yes, there are strings attached.
The second annual "Festival of Strings" is set to take place at 6 p.m. Thursday in the J.B. Chambers Performance Arts Center at Wheeling Park High School. Students participating include strings students from WPHS, as well as Cameron, John Marshall, and Steubenville high schools.
Jeffrey Tedford of Grove City College will serve as guest conductor, and admission to the event is free.
About 75 youths in total will take the stage together, explained Laura Grube, orchestra curriculum coordinator at WPHS.
The upcoming "Festival of Strings" is in its second year after a similar annual concert was suspended during COVID, she explained.
"We collaborated as teachers in the area on a lot of different things," Grube said. "We were looking for an opportunity to get our students together to make music and have a great time working with other students and people from other areas.
"It's nice to have this chance to collaborate.”
There are two groups of students who will perform, and both groups will feature students from all the high schools participating. Freshmen and sophomores will primarily comprise the first group, and work with a group of teachers from all the schools.
Older and more skilled students will play in the second group with Tedford as conductor.
Musical offerings will include some original music for strings, as well as rock and roll tunes. "Crocodile Rock" originally by Elton John is on the playlist and there will be classical offerings as well, according to Grube.
The students will have just one day to practice together as a group, and that happens Thursday on the day of the show.
The music was passed to them at the start of the month. "Calypso Jam," finishes the program, and is Grube's favorite among the selections.
"It's a great opportunity for students to play music that's different from what they are doing at school with people they have never met before," Grube said. "I think music is a great unifying force in the world, and I think it's wonderful that the students can play with people they are literally meeting that day and come together and do it. It will be good."