Project Overview

Chamber Orchestra is an after-school ensemble that meets for an hour once a week. The ensemble is come one come all (non-auditioned) open to students grades 9-12. This performance is at the State level Solo & Ensemble contest through the Wisconsin School Music Association. We prepared the piece Perseus by Soon Hee Newbold and received the highest possible ranking, score 1! Because of the low amount of rehearsal time, students put in an immense amount of individual practice at home to prepare the repertoire. During rehearsals, we would record ourselves and then listen and reflect, following along with the score and our instrumental performance rubric to identify room for improvement and make musical decisions/suggestions as a group. This mirrors the authentic, high-quality work that we do in the regular orchestra classroom setting, which is just at a higher level. Beyond State competition, we performed this piece at our Spring Orchestra concert and for the student body at a whole school Community Meeting. In addition to these high-quality performances, Chamber Orchestra is highly involved in the community and school, performing for grade-level culminating events (such as the Walk to End Alzheimer's), at the Kenosha Civil War Museum, the Veteran's Cafe at Festival Foods, and more.

See the performance here!