Middle School Orchestra Festival 2008

(Images by Bill Kendig) The School District's Greenville County Youth Orchestras produced the twentieth annual Middle School Orchestra Festival on Thursday, October 30th and Saturday, November 1st. Held at the Fine Arts Center (Dr. Roy S. Fluhrer, Director) and Wade Hampton High School (Mr. Lance Radford, Principal) MSOF brought together many aspects of the School District's instrumental music program. Student musicians from middle school strings and band programs, selected and prepared by their classroom teachers, comprised the 90-member Middle School Festival Orchestra. School District music faculty members Kathleen S. Robinson (strings, JL Mann High School and Beck Academy), James Kilgus (band, Mauldin Middle School) and Brian Gencarelli (strings, Mauldin high and middle schools) served as clinicians and master teachers.

Members of GCYO's Young Artist Orchestra, serving as sectional coaches, mentors, and assistants, provided services essential to running the festival. The Greenville County Philharmonic, lead by conductor Kathleen S. Robinson, performed in tandem with the Middle School Festival Orchestra on the Saturday concluding concert. Young Artist Orchestra members Sarah Leonard (violin, Wade Hampton HS/Fine Arts Center, 11) and joshua Dieringer (viola, Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, 12) were featured as soloists with the Philharmonic.

Overall planning, registration, hospitality, and many other foundational aspects of the festival were managed by the youth orchestra's parent support organization, The GCYO Association (Susan Askew, President) and their Executive Director, Ms. Holly Caprell. Young Artist Orchestra Director and Fine Arts Center faculty member Dr. Gary A. Robinson served as site manager and operations chief.