There was standing room only onstage at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center Thursday evening, when about 100 string students from the Island’s town schools joined forces for America the Beautiful, the finale of their spring orchestra concert.
From Scarborough Fair to the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star finale, the All-Island Winter Strings Concert at the Performing Arts Center showcased young musicians from second to eighth grade.
From pint-sized elementary school violinists to high school musicians who now play at an advanced level, the all-Island spring orchestra concert at the Performing Arts Center marked a first of its kind for the public school music program. Strings teacher Nancy Jephcote led the program.
The annual winter concert is a showcase for students in the All-Island elementary strings program, from the very young with their pint-sized violins to older students on cello and viola.
On Monday afternoon, tentative strains of Go Tell Aunt Rhody echo in the foyer of the Chilmark School where beginning and intermediate students perform solo violin recitals. On Tuesday morning, a group of Advanced Orchestra students work to achieve fortissimo at the West Tisbury School. On Wednesday morning, eight intermediate students, ranks depleted due to MCAS testing, fill the band room of the Tisbury School with the coda of their latest piece. One youngster swings his foot in time to the music as he plays.
From the gleaming russet wood of pint-sized instruments, to the shining buckles on children’s dress shoes, to the carefully-practiced notes of the Hallelujah Chorus, Thursday night’s All-Island Winter Strings Concert was full of polish. About 150 students participate in the strings program each year, learning violin, viola, cello and — in some cases — bass under the instruction of Nancy Jephcote and Chelsea Pennebaker.
Music, arts and enrichment programs in the Island schools are on the block for downsizing as the Vineyard schools superintendent tries to craft a budget for the coming year with little or no increase over last year.
And if the 2011 $3.5 million shared services budget for fiscal year 2011 unveiled last week is approved by the All-Island School Committee, the elementary strings program will be first in line for cuts.
The littlest violinists had waited a long time for their stage debut, when at last they could flourish their bows just as their teachers did: up, down, out in front, sideways, up, down, on their heads.
