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Symphonic Orchestra

At SI we have 55 students in our symphonic orchestra comprising strings, winds, brass and percussion.

The orchestra performs at annual Winter and Spring concerts in Bannan Theater. Every year the orchestra also takes a trip during spring break to perform. In April 2023 we traveled to NYC for five days! 

You must have played for at least one year (private lessons or in middle school) and audition to join. Orchestra meets once per week on Mondays from 3-5:30pm and it is expected that all students practice in between rehearsals and complete a weekly recording assignment. 

In 2023-24 the orchestra will work with a guest college music professor, take a trip to perform outside the Bay Area, and attend dinner and a show together. 

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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 Instrumental Music Director at St.Ignatius since 2008, Dr. Clements has led the SI Orchestra and Jazz Band 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 played with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra since 2008, and has performed as violinist with the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the North Carolina Symphony, Key West Symphony, Nairobi Orchestra, 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 and AP Music Theory.

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