How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, practice, practice…
And practice we did!!  Washington Irving Orchestra and Band students are all set to take their big trip to Carnegie Hall next week Tuesday.  We are especially excited to have 28 WI students performing onstage along with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the “Come to Play” Singers!   Our students were selected from [...]

Neighborhood House Performance

The WI Chamber Orchestra performed Thursday, February 11th at the Neighborhood House, just down the street from school.  This annual Valentine’s Day performance brings together the top players from the district orchestra program, grades 4-12.
Please listen to one of the pieces we performed:
trumpet voluntary

Carnegie Hall’s LinkUP!

Fifth-grade violinists and violists are busy preparing for Carnegie Hall’s LinkUP! concert which will take place at the end of May.  LinkUP! is a year-long curriculum for General Music and String Programs, culminating in an interactive concert in May. 
This week we began putting the final touches on the LinkUP! theme song, “Come to Play” by Tom [...]

Paul Rolland’s Shuttle Game

Fifth-grade violinists and violists have been playing games to develop the motion needed for vibrato and shifting.  Notice how the elbow scoops under the violin and how the thumb comes under the fingerboard.

I learned this exercise many years ago from the Paul Rolland films, “The Teaching of Action in String Playing”.  If I remember correctly, [...]

Debut of the 2009 Beginning Orchestra

The WI Beginning Orchestra is busy getting ready for our big moment … on Wednesday, June 3rd at 9:00am, we will play our first formal concert!   The show opens with “Super Twinkle”, followed by the Suzuki tunes, “Lightly Row” and “Song of the Wind”.  Last on the program is our first non-unison piece, “Dance in [...]

Pivot, Pivot

Two of my beginning cello students showed me how to pivot the left arm when we hop from high B to G in “Song of the Winze”, aka “Song of the Wind”.

We are all working on keeping our left elbows from sinking too low, even the bass section.

Violinists scoop their elbow under the violin when [...]

Back to the Basics

My beginning violin students sometimes ask me how it is that I sound so good when I play my instrument.  I tell them that not only have I been playing violin since the age of the dinosaurs, but I also have spent countless hours practicing over the millennia.  Although I don’t practice as much as [...]

We Shall Overcome

A couple of my students saw on the local news that twenty-six young violin students from Harlem have been invited to perform at the Children’s Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C.  You might recognize the violinists of Opus 118 and their teacher, Roberta Guaspari, from the movie, Music of the Heart.
Best of luck to the talented [...]

Winter Concert

The Senior Orchestra is looking forward to our big performance at the Winter Concert on Wednesday, December 17th at 7pm. Violin & Viola players should arrive at 6pm to tune and to warm-up.  Cello and Bass players may arrive at 6:30pm. Here is a short preview of Skaters’ Waltz: skate1
Beginning strings will give a less [...]

WI Chamber Orchestra Turns Pro

Members of the WI Chamber Orchestra had their first gig on Friday, November 14th.  Thanks to the Stop & Shop in Ossining, NY for inviting us to play for their Grand Opening event.  The students played for over an hour, previewing all of their music for the winter concert in December.  Audience members, both young [...]