So when Matt said he wanted to be in the middle school orchestra I was a little surprised. This is my athletic, sporty kid but he spent several years playing guitar and is really good at reading music and knows music theory (thank you Kristi Houlton). I was pretty excited but a little nervous on how this might go. He decided to play the viola. It's small enough to take to and from school but what he didn't know is that the viola plays on a different clef so he had to learn something new!
Well I quickly figured out why he chose orchestra for his fine art elective...Mrs. Davis, the orchestra teacher is amazing! She's really good and so nice to the kids. Their first performance was the week of Halloween and I was dreading listening to 120 first year orchestra kids play their instruments. I was completely shocked at how well they sounded.
Matt started taking lessons and got better every day. He made 1st chair most of the time on his chair tests and his private lesson instructor said he was really good. I know nothing about music but could tell it was starting to sound like the dying cat we initially heard had died and his music sounded great!
The first year orchestra competed at the end of the year and received a score of 1 (best possible) and also won Best in Class. Here's a little clip from one of their pieces.
That same day they had their spring show at WMS. They sounded amazing. Matt received the Outstanding Musician Award! I couldn't believe it. Were we so proud of him!
And icing on the cake...Matt just found out he made the Chamber Orchestra (kind of like the Varsity squad) for next year. Thank you Mrs. Davis, Mr. Schirmer and Mr. Ricardo for all you do for Matt and all of these kids. We can't wait to hear the Chamber play next year!!
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