PORT ANGELES — Tchaikovsky led his orchestra there on opening night in 1891. Both George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky came in 1925, and The Beatles arrived in 1964.
And in an event director Ron Jones has organized every four years since 1989, the Port Angeles High School Orchestra will play New York City’s Carnegie Hall this Easter Sunday, March 31.
To give their hometown a preview of the Carnegie Hall concert, Jones and his students will give a free performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave.
Year of fundraising
This event follows well over a year of fundraising by the young musicians and their families.
OPUS, Orchestra Parents United for Students, has held concerts and dances, including “An Evening of New York Song,” singer Vicki Helwick’s concert in January that raised $2,400.
“We are extremely grateful for the community’s support of our Roughrider Orchestra,” said Jones, who has taught music at Port Angeles High since 1975.
The Carnegie Hall concert program to be showcased Tuesday night includes Beethoven’s Allegretto from Symphony No. 7, the American Rondo from Dvorak’s Quartet in F Major and the Serenade for String Orchestra by Dag Wiren.
Then, for fun, Jones has added “World’s End” from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.
Rounded out
That’s about 35 minutes of music, so Jones, wanting to fill out the concert to an hour, also will lead the Port Angeles School District’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade orchestras in a short performance.
These players, Jones hopes, will stick with their music — and go to Carnegie Hall in 2017.
This spring’s concert in New York City, the seventh for orchestras from Port Angeles High School, is presented by MidAmerica Productions and titled the Ensemble Spotlight Series.
The Carolina Youth Symphony from Greenville, S.C., and the Redmond High School Orchestra from Washington state also will perform.
For more information or to make a donation toward the students’ trip to New York City, on which they also will visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the United Nations, phone OPUS treasurer Michele Haworth at 360-452-5914.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
