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Nanuet HS Prepares to Host Senior All County Music Festival

The concert is Saturday, Feb 4 at 3 p.m. for Band & Women's Chorus and 5 p.m. for Orchestra and Mixed Chorus at Nanuet HS; $8 gets you into both performances

 

The Rockland County Music Educators Association will hold its annual Senior All County Music Festival at on Saturday afternoon following an intense two days of rehearsal. The Senior All County Band, Women’s Chorus, Orchestra and Mixed Chorus will be performing.

This year the position of Orchestra Chair is held by Nanuet’s Katherine Rife. The position can be challenging as it’s time intensive and requires a lot of effort in addition to her regular duties.  The Chair is responsible for, among other things, finding a conductor, producing a list of students that are eligible to participate, selecting music and fitting everyone’s schedule together.  In the end, Rife says it’s her job to “make it pleasant for the conductor as well and make their experience enriching and make sure that the students are coming to the task well prepared.”

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This year Rife is especially excited by her selection of orchestra conductor Jeffery Grogan.

“We have the conductor of the New Jersey Youth Symphony for the Senior All County Orchestra which is magnificent. This is a guy who is one of the top in the country in his field for this level of student and so I’m very pleased. My goal is to have a real conductor work with the kids so that they have that experience.”

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Rife also feels a personal connection to this year’s festival in her choice of Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet #8, a piece that originally featured a violinist who was jailed by the KGB.

“I met the violinist who was thrown in jail. He defected to the United States, and I met him in the 70’s, so it was an incredible experience I have to share with the students as well.” 

She notes that String Quartet #8 was written in part as a response to the bombings of Dresden as well as Shostakovich’s experiences as a partly Jewish man living under the repressive Soviet régime which conscripted him into the Communist party. Ultimately, says Rife, it’s a good opportunity to see the historical context of the piece and that it’s “going to be a part of what the experience of the orchestra will be. Sort of getting the historical background on the writing of the piece and what the composer was actually going through with the KGB and all the rest of it while he was attempting to write it.”

Also instrumental in the smooth operation of the All County Festival is Band Director Walter Miller. In addition to preparing his students for the rigors of the festival, Miller is himself a product of Rockland County and All County events.

“I grew up in Rockland County in New City and I came up through NYSSMA … and school concert band and school orchestra. Drums were always my thing from when I was two, and I started playing NYSSMA solos when I was in 7th grade, and in high school I was in band and in pep band and some other activities. I went to Senior All County when I was a sophomore, a junior and a senior, and area All State when I was a senior.”

His love of music and the decision to pursue a career in teaching was further fueled by an early encounter with drum legend Luther Rix.

“My parents, for my 17th birthday, took me to see Tommy on Broadway, and later on that summer I was at the Hopper House watching a jazz concert with my parents. I took lessons at Long Island Drum Center and we just walked down the street afterwards to watch. It turned out that the drummer was Luther Rix who wrote the book for Tommy. I got a chance to talk to him and he was telling me a little bit about the music business, and I thought that was really cool and I can do this, and then I got involved with teaching elementary kids after school for a half hour or once a week, and that’s what I decided I wanted to do.”

Miller will be on site to help facilitate this year’s festival as well as playing percussion during the Orchestra’s performance.

Saturday’s performance will be presented in two parts, the first of which features Band and Women’s Chorus. Led by Conductor Dr. Bruce Moss, the All County Band will perform The Sinfonians by Clifton Williams, Overture to Tancredi by Rossini,  Dusk by Steven Bryant, and Puzsta - Gypsy Dances by Jan Van der Roost.

Under the direction of Dawn Becker the Women’s Chorus will perform Juego a que me quemo (Chispa Candela) arranged by Julian Gomez Giraldo, Will There Really be a Morning? by Craig Hella Johnson, Hey Nonny No! by Crystal LaPoint Kowalski, A Girl’s Garden by Randall Thompson and Blessing by Katie Moran Bart.

The second half of the festival will feature the Orchestra and Mixed Chorus, conducted by Jeffery Grogan and Richard Moss respectively. The Orchestra will perform Sospiri Opus 70 by Edward Elgar, Sinfonia from String Quartet #8 by Dmitri Shostakovich and America, from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. Additional percussion will be provided by Walter Miller and John Wagner.

The Mixed chorus will perform Canon in Swing by Rieks Veenker, Shenandoah arranged by James Erb, Lacrymosa  by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Blow the Candles Out arranged by Greg Smith and Ezekiel Saw De Wheel by William L. Dawson.

Check back with Patch for coverage of the concert.

Representing Nanuet in the festival are:

Allison Boyd, Samantha Brennen, Connor Burnich, James Camillieri, Katherine Filartov, Bethany Gruskin, Troy Hansen, Andrew Hawkins, Neil Heinzer, Diana Innocent, Desiree Mertens, Rebecca Mosner, Ileah Pratt, Kristin Quill, George Rodriguez, Sarah Schragenheim, Sean Selinske, Jonah     Silverstone, Joseph Sweet, Shanna Thomas, Neha Vaidya, Kayla Weiner, Andrew  Weiss, Grace    Calip, Robyn DeJesus, Samuel Fein, Ana Gremli, Jessica Leung, Chae Yeun Park, Kevin Tsao, Jackie Ferro, Shelzia George, Niko Giannakakos, Shira Goldmann, Robert May-Marra, Brendan Dang, Charles Miller, Avery Chang, Brian Schairer, Alexa Texel, Alan Thi, Stefanie Wu and Louis Yang.

Representing Pearl River are:

Prima Bautista, Dominique Carrieri, Ian Kelly, Amelia Marino, Catherine Mazzochi, Kyle McDonald, Joanna McIntyre, Jimin Son, David Avery, Brian Edsall, Molly O'Hagan, Sarah Sharrin and Yena Park.

Representing Nyack are:

Brianna Brickman, Cassandra Brown, Ethan Cohen, Stephen Locke, Seth Prisament, Jonathan Rizner, Emily Spezial, Cara Wanamaker, Theodore Yongue, Nora Awadallah, Gabriel Becker, Kyle Borst, Ariel Brogno, Charlotte Buck, Rebecca Carriel, Corinne Casolaro, Emma Caster-Dudzick, Lisa Colten, Jalin Cunninghan, Anna Diyamandoglu, Sean Guiao, Julian Ngolla, Muuhito Phillips, Natasha Sarna, Emily Stepper, Leon Stilwell, Jeremy Straus, Lein Vong, Jonathan Zajonc, Stephane Benoit, Carl Brooks, David Gates, Klarissa Armada, Jenessa Orpilla and Alexandra Panov.

Representing Clarkstown North are:

Talia Brown, Stephanie Dugan, Rathna Ramanathan, Joel Tom, Minkyung Kim and Gabi Im.

Representing Clarkstown South are:

Katrina De Los Reyes, Meredith Halfond, Andrew Kim, Daseal Ko, Patrick Luce, Janaki Narayanan, Devin Solar, Chae Won Kim, Jacqueline Yi, Joy Woo, James Benoit, Alexandra Geister, Joe Gyu Jong Yoo and Nicole Riolo

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