High schools harmonize with WSU orchestra

From staff reports

Junior high and high school students will start on a high note today when they take part in WSU’s orchestra festival.

WSU will host the WSU/WASTA High School and Junior High Orchestra Festival today. The daylong festival will provide clinics for student orchestras and include midday WSU Symphony Orchestra performance open to the public at 12:10 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre.

WSU Symphony Orchestra conductor Matthew Aubin said he founded the festival three years ago in hopes that he could provide a service to middle and high school students.

“I wanted to encourage young orchestra students to become their very best and also show them what the WSU School of Music has to offer,” Aubin said.

Since its inception, Aubin said the festival has grown rapidly. In just three years, the attendance has nearly doubled, going from seven student orchestras in its first year to 13 that will attend this year’s event.

“This year we’ve got our first orchestra coming from the west side of the state, the Vancouver area,” Aubin said. “We’re really excited about that.”

Students who attend the festival will perform for a panel of WSU faculty and guest conductor Stephen Radcliffe, music director of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra.

“I’m most excited to be working with (Radcliffe).  He has such a creative mind and a passion for music,” senior music major Kyndra Sisayaket said. “It’s great … we could bring in someone as renowned as him to be working with our university students and the incoming orchestras on Friday.”

Aubin and Sisayaket agree that the festival doesn’t only provide education to the middle and high school students. The WSU students who help to run the festival develop skills that will help them in their future careers.

“Being part of the orchestra and the festival has taught me about collaborating with others,” Sisayaket said.  “We have a very diverse group of students — music majors, non-music majors, graduate students, and even some students from the local high schools. I think it’s wonderful that so many people from different backgrounds can play and enjoy music together.”

That diversity extends to all students at WSU and the Pullman community, who are welcome to come and share in the education today.

“I would encourage other WSU students to come support future Cougars coming on Friday,” Sisayaket said. “We bring in a lot schools in the area, and many of them end up coming to WSU for their education. We want to show them that WSU is a welcoming place.”

Reporting by Katherine Lipp