Orchestra Students To Perform Concert At Diddle Arena

May 12, 2008

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University’s Diddle Arena will be filled with the sounds of music on Thursday (May 15). 

More than 350 students from Bowling Green City Schools and Warren County Schools will perform an eclectic array of music from Bach to Green Day. The students from the Warren County school system are part of the WKU pre-college string development program.

This concert is the culmination of many hours of practice throughout this school year. “The students sound amazing,” said Sarah Berry, professional music teacher at WKU. “The three orchestras will be performing everything from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 to music from Pirates of the Caribbean.”

The concert is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and admission is free to the public.  Students will display their orchestra skills on violin, viola, cello and double bass.

WKU’s Music Department and the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach (DELO) developed the pre-college string development program in 2003 to offer high quality instruction in orchestral stringed instruments in a nurturing environment.

WKU Department of Music faculty members taught public school string classes in both Bowling Green City Schools and Warren County Schools until 10 schools were involved in the project. In the fall of 2007, Bowling Green City Schools hired Orchestra Director Patrick O’Rourke to carry on the work that the WKU teachers had begun. The results of four years of work have produced two orchestras at Bowling Green Junior High School, with rising high school age players for fall of 2008. WKU faculty members continue to teach in the Warren County Schools and have 93 students participating in the program. 

For information about the pre-college string development program, visit the Continuing Education website at www.wku.edu/ce or call (270) 745-1912. Continuing Education is a unit of the Division of Extended Learning & Outreach (DELO)
               
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Stacey Biggs at (270) 745-1926.