EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that the start time of the second concert is 7:15 p.m.
PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District’s strings students from grades four through 12 will perform in two concerts on Thursday.
The concerts of the 42nd Annual All-City String Review are free and open to the public in the Port Angeles High School’s main gymnasium at 304 E. Park Ave.
This year’s program will divide the young musicians between two concerts. The first concert will begin at 6 p.m. and the second at 7:15 p.m. Seniors will perform and be honored in both concerts.
“We’ve eliminated the ‘East/West’ divide between the two shows this year,” said James Ray, Port Angeles High School Orchestra director.
“Up until a few years ago, All-City existed as a single concert. As our numbers grew, it became necessary to divide the show into twin performances simply because we would no longer all fit in the gym,” he said.
The simplest solution, he said, was to place elementary students from each side of town into their own show. Any siblings they had at the middle- and high school would follow them and remaining secondary students would be divided to even out the assignments to each program.
“While this was certainly an efficient way to do things in terms of organization/logistics, we became concerned that we were losing something in the community-building aspect of the concert by effectively making each show a ‘half-city,’” Ray said.
“There is a powerful statement in having students from throughout the district performing for families and community members from across our town’s geography. To that end, we decided this year that we would keep two concerts but would assign students so that kids from each elementary school would appear in both shows.
“This has added a whole new layer of planning and coordinating considerations for us string teachers — for a show that already requires an enormous amount of preparatory effort on our part — but we think it has been well worth it; we hope our community agrees,” Ray said.
This will be the first All-City String Review without the former PAHS director, Ron Jones. Jones initiated this concert early in his time in Port Angeles in his efforts to grow and increase the visibility of what was then a very small program.
“This pair of concerts will be a testament to the success of those early efforts, with anticipated 703 students performing,” Ray aid.
Ray will be joined by district strings instructors as conductors. They are:
• Sabrina Scruggs: Grades 4-6 at Franklin Elementary; Stevens Middle School.
• Elizabeth Helwick: Grades 4-6 at Dry Creek Elementary and Hamilton Elementary; grades 4 and 5 at Jefferson Elementary.
• Traci Tyson: 6th grade at Jefferson Elementary; grades 4-6 at Roosevelt Elementary.
