Po-Hi Chamber Strings, Symphony Strings orchestras perform fall concert Monday

The Ponca City High School Chamber Strings and Symphony Strings Orchestras will take to the stage to present their Fall Concert Monday night, Oct. 28.

The program will begin at 7 p.m. in the Ponca City Schools Concert Hall and will include a costume contest. Director of Orchestras Paula Cochran is assisted by Katie Rolf and Ella Gordon. Assistant Band Director Andrew Orr will accompany the orchestras. There is no admission charge, and the public is invited.

The 40-member Chamber Strings Orchestra will perform two selections to begin the concert. Their first piece includes a Funky Pizzicato Groove with the violas taking center stage with bluesy rifts through Doug Spata’s Goblin Dance. Following is Robert Sieving’s Spooky Beastie Stomp. This piece combines a few musical clichés associated with goblins, ghosts and magic spells.

The 67-member Symphony Strings Orchestra, will take the stage next. The group’s first two selections, Introduction and Allegro by Robert D McCashin and Richard Stephan’s Fantasia on a 17^th Century Tune, will be performed at the OSSAA regional string contest on Nov. 19. Following is Night on Bald Mountain by Modeste Mussorgsky, inspired by Russian and Gogol mythology. The Symphony Strings then brings haunting sounds to the stage with Soon Hee Newbold’s The Haunted Carousel. Alan Lee Silva’s The Evil Eye and the Hideous Heart is next. This piece follows the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s Telltale Heart, appealing to the sense of mystery with a delicious touch of the macabre.

At the conclusion of this piece, children under the age of 18 are invited to the stage to participate in the costume contest. As the Symphony Strings perform Soon Hee Newbold’s A Knight’s Quest, the children will walk across the stage. Three winners will be chosen and receive gift baskets donated by our Instrumental Music Parent Association.

The group concludes the concert with Larry Moore’s arrangement of Thriller. The Chamber Strings will join the Symphony Strings in this short and exciting arrangement to close the concert.

The Symphony Strings combined with the Stillwater High School Orchestra on Sept. 23 for the annual joint concert. The Symphony Strings orchestra is preparing for the OSSAA Regional String Orchestra Contest on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at Edmond Santa Fe High School. The next Ponca City performance for the two orchestras will be a Holiday Concert with the High School Chorale on Tuesday, Dec. 17, in the Ponca City School Concert Hall at 7 p.m.