Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Instrumental Festival Brings Acclaimed Conductor to Calvin
Musicians from area high schools gathered at Calvin music department’s String Orchestra Festival last week for the rare opportunity to play under the baton of a nationally renowned conductor.
Over 100 students participated in Wednesday’s workshop, led by Calvin professors and guest conductor Chelsea Tipton II of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.
The day concluded with a concert featuring the high school honors orchestra- composed of students from St. Joseph, Forest Hills Central, and Calvin Christian high schools- and the Calvin College orchestra.
Conductors Tipton and Calvin’s own Robert Nordling led performers in the works of Gustav Mahler, Samuel Barber, and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Calvin junior and cellist Lisa Van Lopik participated in the festival and spoke highly of the high school orchestra members.
“In some aspects, they were a lot better than I expected,” Van Lopik said, “I was impressed.” Senior violinist Rebecca Tong agreed and commented on her surprise at the level of improvement she saw in the students within just a few hours of work.
Both Van Lopik and Tong were pleased with the high school students’ performance of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Op. 11. “It’s just very hard to control,” Tong said of the piece, the first song performed by the honors orchestra.
Tipton explained his vision for the student musicians, saying he did not intend to make the students music majors, but rather, music appreciators. “Whether they do decide to pursue music or whether they decide to pursue other choices in their lives, they’ll always have appreciation and wonderful remembrances of making music [inside] of the orchestra,” he told the audience of the workshop participants.
Tipton has a long list of credentials, having appeared with several major orchestras such as the Boston Pops Orchestra and appearing on the NBC Today Show with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.