GCYO Middle School Orchestra Festival 2007

(Images by Bill Kendig) Greenville County Youth Orchestra staged its nineteenth annual Middle School Orchestra Festival on the Fine Arts Center/Wade Hampton High School campus on Friday and Saturday, November 2nd and 3rd. The event assembles students for what is usually their first experience in a symphony orchestra. This year it brought together ninety middle school musicians: string players who had been recommended and prepared by their School District classroom teachers, and band students who were selected as members of the 2007 All-County Band Festival. They were joined by twenty members of Greenville County Youth Orchestra who served as section coaches and mentors, and GCYO’s step-up ensemble, The Philharmonic, which served as Host Orchestra. GCYO Music Director Gary Robinson, Philharmonic Music Director Kathleen Robinson, and Mauldin Middle School Band Director James Kilgus served as festival clinicians. Kilgus, who is on the conducting staff of the Carolina Youth Symphony, also organized band students who participated in the festival.

The GCYO Association (Susan Askew, President) provided underwriting, organization, and volunteers to stage the Middle School Orchestra Festival. The event concluded with a concert that featured The Philharmonic, conducted by Kathleen Robinson and showcasing GCYO violinist Sarah Rogers as soloist, and the Middle School Festival Orchestra.