Ned Griffin leaves Island Sinfonia after four years directing. Jim Shaffer-Bauck will be new co-director. Photo courtesy of Margot Shaw.
On Sunday afternoon, May 4, Ned Griffin, Island Sinfonia’s conductor of the last four years, passed his conductor’s wand over to Jim Shaffer-Bauck.
The concert, last of the group’s spring series of concerts featured Orcas High School student Brigid Ehrmantraut’s complex composition, “Hamlet Overture,” and a recently-discovered six-movement vocal work by Handel, called “Gloria” and sung by Lopez musician and singer Ginni Keith.
Island Sinfonia is composed of 30 members, of whom six are student musicians: Tim Jenson, Josiah Nyberg, Sasha Hagen, Emy Carter, Paris Wilson, along with Brigid Ehrmantraut.
Concertmaster Scott Heisinger presented Griffin with a CD of the group’s performance on Lopez and a dinner certificate at the Orcas Hotel in appreciation for his direction of the symphonic group, which has members from Orcas, Lopez, San Juan and Shaw Islands.
