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2010 IMEA All State Honors Orchestra

Jan 312010

We drove down to Peoria yesterday to hear Ben play in the IMEA (Illinois Music Educators Association) All State Honors Orchestra concert. In the violin seating auditions Ben placed first and so he was concertmaster – very exciting! He had a couple of solos in Red Cape Tango (based on Superman) by Michael Daugherty – here are the excerpts with his solos:

Download Red Cape Tango (1st excerpt)

Download Red Cape Tango (2nd excerpt)

Here’s a more compressed video of the whole of Red Cape Tango (his solos are from about 2:15-3:15 and 9:45-10:45 minutes into the video):

Download Red Cape Tango

(Click on the photo of the orchestra at the top of this post to see a bigger version of it, then click ‘all sizes’, ‘original size’ to see the full size image)

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Oct 242008

Ben and Esther both recently auditioned for the Illinois Music Educators Association district orchestras, Esther for Junior High and Ben for High School.

They both did well. Esther will be sitting third chair of the first violins and Ben is principal second violin (he was ranked third – they put a strong player at the front of the second violins). Because of how he was ranked Ben also qualified to participate in the All State Honors Orchestra in January.

Esther’s IMEA concert is on November 1st and Ben’s is on November 22.

Ben and Esther are also both entering the Oak Park River Forest Symphony Concerto Competition this year, Esther on violin playing the last movement of the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Ben on piano playing Liszt’s first Piano Concerto. That will take place November 15.

In their fall school orchestra auditions they both came second, which means Esther is principal second violin and Ben is assistant concertmaster (second chair of the first violins).