Orchestra
Our large string orchestra and auditioned Honors Strings ensemble perform at annual Winter and Spring concerts in Bannan Theater, the annual Performing Arts Assembly and at Behind the Curtain every October. The orchestra also travels during spring every year to perform at festivals, attend workshops, concerts and go on rides at various theme parks, whether it is Santa Cruz, LA or New York City.
You must have played for at least one year (private lessons or in middle school) and complete a seating audition to join. Orchestra meets once per week on Mondays from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. and it is expected that all students practice in between rehearsals and complete a weekly recording assignment. A select group will be invited to join Honors Strings, a smaller chamber orchestra, which additionally rehearses on Tuesdays, 7:50-8:50 a.m. and will have more travel opportunities and competitions throughout the year.
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Additional Information
About the Orchestra Director Dr. Gillian Clements
B.M.Violin Performance, Boston University 1999; M.M. Violin Performance, Rice University 2002; D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts) Music Education, Boston University 2008. As Orchestra Director at St.Ignatius since 2008, Dr. Clements has led the SI Orchestra at CMEA Festivals (large ensemble, Solo & Ensemble), Santa Cruz Jazz Festival, Music in the Parks, New York International Music Festival (Carnegie Hall, NYC), Forum Music Festival, and Disney Magic Music Days (Anaheim) where SI ensembles have received the high ratings of "Command Performance," and "Superior". In July 2011 Dr. Clements arranged the first-ever "SI-Kenya Music Exchange", taking seven students from the Orchestra and Jazz Band to Kenya to perform with the Kenya Conservatoire of Music Orchestra and the Mount Kenya Academy Orchestra. Dr. Clements moved to San Francisco in 2008 from Nyeri, Kenya where she lived and worked for 18 months to found a string program at the Mount Kenya Academy (www.mountkenyaacademy.com) and complete research for her dissertation. Additionally Dr. Clements has taught music theory, sight-singing, chamber music and orchestra sectionals at the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, Boston University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Dana Hall School (Wellesley, MA), and Rice University Preparatory Program (Houston, TX).
Dr. Clements has performed with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra on and off since 2008, and has performed as violinist with the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the the Nairobi Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, Key West Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, San Francisco Chorale Society Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, the indie rock band Vampire Weekend and the Transiberian Orchestra.
Courses: Music Appreciation A (Western Classical Music & Broadway Musicals) & Music Appreciation B (Jazz), Orchestra, Honors Strings, and AP Music Theory.