High School Music Concert to Feature Chamber Music’s Monique Mead

The High School Strings Musicians

Martin Lund’s Last Concert as Band Director

By Kristen Wilson for Music Advocacy Group (MAG)

Orcas High School music students will bring the music of Vivaldi, Gershwin, Elgar, Brahms and Lund to Center Stage at Orcas Center when they perform for the last time this year on Thursday, May 30, at 7 p.m. “We hope everyone will come celebrate the accomplishments of these young musicians by attending their final concert for the school year,” said Pamela Wright, Music Director for strings and choir. “In addition, I’m sad to say, it’s the last concert for Martin Lund who is resigning at the end of this school year.”

High School Band and Strings musicians will perform on Thursday, May 30 at Orcas Center at  7 p.m.

“Because of these kids’ remarkable performances at regional music concerts this year, they have brought a lot of positive attention to the Orcas School and to our community,” said Martin Lund, Band Director. “Come see what all the buzz is about!”

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival fans will be interested to know that renowned violinist Monique Mead, a frequent guest artist with the OICMF, will be playing the solo on Vivaldi’s “Spring” with the Orcas High School Strings. Other highlights of the program are sure to be the Orcas Youth Orchestra’s performance of a symphony by Brahms and Martin Lund’s arrangement of “Gershwin Medley.”

The High School Band will be performing “Morning Has Broken,” a traditional Irish folk song and “Western Suite,” a composition by Martin Lund, for which the band received a 1+ (or superior) rating at a regional music contest. The High School Strings will perform the first and third movements of Vivaldi’s “Concerto No. 1 La Primavera (Spring)” from The Four Seasons, as well as Edward Elgar’s composition “Elegy for Strings,” for which they also received a 1+ rating at regional contest. Strings and band will come together as the Orcas Youth Orchestra to perform the third movement of Johannes Brahms’ “Symphony No. 2” and “Gershwin Medley,” the latter arranged by Lund.

The High School concert is free and open to everyone in the community, although donations to the Music Advocacy Group (MAG) will be accepted for this performance to offset the $400+ rental fee for Orcas Center. The public school concert series will conclude on Thursday, June 6, with a performance by Kindergarten through 4th grade students at 6:30 p.m. in the Old Gym at the Orcas School.