Rocky Mountain Festival of Strings begins this weekend

Written by Caitlin White

Thursday, 26 February 2009 16:00

An honors orchestra and a concerto competition are just two of the activities within the Rocky Mountain Festival of Strings happening at the University of Wyoming this weekend.

The Rocky Mountain Festival of Strings is a two-day event that brings together the best high school string players from around the region. This year students from Laramie, Evanston, Jackson, Douglas and Fort Collins will be in attendance, Janelle Fletcher-Kilmer, the director of the Fine Arts Cultural Outreach center, said.

The honors orchestra will be made up of these string players and they will have the privilege of being conducted by Alan Black, the principal cellist of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.

“Students will be able to play a repertoire that is more chamber based,” Fletcher-Kilmer said. “This is a good opportunity because they may not have had access to such music in their school.”

The students will have two days to practice as a group and to prepare themselves for the finale concert on Saturday. The honors orchestra concert will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Fine Arts Concert Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The festival will also allow students to enter in the concerto competition. The winner will be rewarded with playing a concerto movement during the finale concert with the honors orchestra, Fletcher-Kilmer said. She added that a cash award will also be rewarded to the winner and runner-up in the competition.

Senior high school participants interested in attending UW are invited to audition for scholarships during the weekend.

“This is a great occasion for University of Wyoming recruitment,” Fletcher-Kilmer said.

The Festival of Strings performers will also have the chance to interact with faculty and students at UW through master’s classes, sectionals and a concert. Participants will work with such UW representatives through an orchestra reading with the UW symphony orchestra.

“These students will go through an intensive workshop with their peers and with representatives from UW,” Fletcher-Kilmer said.

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