It is not every day that high school musicians get a chance to perform with the pros in front of an audience – but members of the Cane Bay High Percussion Ensemble got to do just that last week with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
A total of 13 students spent two days – March 6 and 8 – performing with the orchestra at the Gaillard Center in downtown Charleston as part of the annual “Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks” program, geared toward visiting elementary students as a fun and engaging way to get younger students interested in fine arts. VIEW PHOTOS.
The event is also often referred to as the Young People’s Concert. Nearly 3,000 local students participate in the program and have the opportunity to study the curriculum in their classrooms, sing and play recorders with the orchestra from their seats during part of the program.
Cane Bay High band director Dr. Ryan Westberry has a great working relationship with Mitsuko Flynn, director of education and business operations for the orchestra. Flynn reached out to Westberry in January to extend the invitation to Cane Bay High students to perform in a section of the event.
“Link Up” features a tune titled “Drumlines” by composer Thomas Cabaniss, and Cane Bay High’s percussion ensemble was the featured drumline. There was also a section of the program where the students played a cadence by themselves called “Surfer Girl.”
Westberry said he and his students were “100 percent” interested in joining the orchestra in the program.
“It was a brilliant experience, in terms of being able to work with professional musicians and have our students work in that environment,” he said.
To prepare for the occasion, students had a rehearsal at the school on Feb. 14, led by two percussionists from the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Beth Albert and Ryan Leveille. A second rehearsal was held March 5 with Cabaniss, as well as Kellen Gray, the program’s conductor. That evening, the students joined the orchestra at the Gaillard for a dress rehearsal.
Anyone who has been inside the Gaillard would be familiar with its grandeur – particularly the 1,818-seat Martha and John M. Rivers Performance Hall. Students had never been on that stage before, and they got to see how the professionals work.
Westberry made sure his students understood that they were guest performers for this particular event, but for the professional musicians in the orchestra, this is their job – and they treat it as such.
“The Charleston Symphony Orchestra members were absolutely brilliant,” Westberry said, adding that he talks about professionalism with his students for every event they do. “It hits differently when you have to go live it, not just talk it.”
Eleventh grader Taylor McCray, who plays snare drums, was among a few students who observed how seriously the orchestra members take their jobs.
“It was nice to see the professional side of it,” she said, adding that it was a positive experience for the students. “I feel like this challenges you in a different way.”
Junior Brandon Narin and 10th grader Aydan Moore said an added challenge for them was learning to play new instruments since both normally play woodwind instruments in the percussion ensemble.
Narin’s primary instrument is the trombone. He joined the percussion class this year and last week’s performance was his first time playing marching bass drum – but he said he likes learning to play new instruments. It was also Moore’s first time playing tenors.
Narin said band students enjoyed getting to play in front of the visiting elementary students.
“It was a fun – all the kids seemed pretty excited to be there,” he said.
The high school students also liked watching members of the orchestra interact with the elementary students in the audience.
“They had been preparing for months in their music classes, practicing the recorders, and the orchestra played some of the songs that they’d been learning and they all played together,” Moore said.
Cane Bay High’s band is now actively gearing up for an April event in Gatlinburg, where they will compete in the Smokey Mountain Music Festival. Students from the percussion ensemble, jazz band and concert band will participate.
Westberry thanks Flynn and Hailey Yasinski, an executive fellow in the orchestra’s office, for making this opportunity with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra a reality for his students.
“They just did phenomenal work,” he said. “Our hometown orchestra is putting that much into the community for the education of the next generation of musicians, and I think that’s phenomenal.”