Cary Academy Orchestra

Last weekend, April 13 to 16, Cary Academy MS and US Orchestra students participated in the Heritage 2007 Spring Music Festival in NYC. All members in this group returned safely at 1:30 am on April 17.

This year the festival hosted 17 schools and 53 performance groups from 15 states and provinces from CA to VA and from Canada to FL.

All the performance groups were divided into:

Class J (Jr. High and Middle school)

1A (school enrollment less than 600)

2A (school enrollment less than 1200)

3A (school enrollment more than 1201)

Therefore, Cary Academy MS orchestra was in Class J and US orchestra was in 1A

The result for this competition

* Cary Academy MS: 1^st place and Silver Ranking

* Cary Academy US: 1^st place and Gold Ranking

* The US honors orchestra three clarinet players:

Vann Mitchell; Saige Clark; Damien Jiang won:

Outstanding Soloist Trophy (total three trophies from this festival)

* We also took the Festival outstanding performance group Trophy

* We once again received the invitation certificate for next year “National Gold Festival” in Boston Symphony Hall (only 6 groups invited from this festival)

All the students worked hard and chaperones gave them the behavior score of A or A+.

Due to flight cancellation we took the bus back home on the 17^th.

The orchestra director Mr. Yiying Qiao wants to thank all the chaperones and parents for their excellent work and support.

He also wants to thank Jess Garcia and Sam Monsour and their staffs for the help and services.

The US head Mitch McGuigan was in the trip also and contributed strongly as

we faced the severe weather.

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Last weekend, six Cary Academy students performed in NC Eastern Regional Sr. All State Orchestra Festival in NCSSM in Durham.

The festival began in the evening on Friday Feb. 17th and the concert was in the afternoon on Sunday Feb. 19th. More than 200 students from 53 schools participated this festival. The string orchestra conductor is: Professor Tracey Rush (Northeast Iowa Community College) and the symphony orchestra conductor is: Professor Yoichi Udagawa (Boston Conservatory of Music).

This year’s program for the symphony orchestra was the most difficult one in the history but the young musicians worked very hard and had a great improvement in the three days. The final concert went extremely well.

Murphy Chang (Flute/Symphony); Andrew Bryson (Cello/String); Jeffrey Stanton (Viola/String); Rodrigo Haragutchi (1^st Violin/Symphony); Charlotte Morgan (Viola/String) and Nathaniel Ting (1^st Violin/Symphony). Two senior students Abraham Chen and Aparna Chatterjee were also selected by the festival symphony orchestra but they have the schedule for the college interview on that weekend therefore, they could not make it.

Last Saturday, (Jan. 21, 2006) 8 Cary Academy Upper School orchestra students took the audition at Green Hope High School for 2006 All State Orchestra Festival and all of them made it. Congratulations to the winners!!!

Audition was from 10:15 am to 4:30 pm and every contestant has to perform in front of 9 judges in order to get their final score. Over 400 players from eastern NC participated this competition. The final result as following:

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Five Make State Honors Orchestra

Five Cary Academy orchestra students have been selected to the 2005 N.C. State Honors Orchestra. They are, with instrument: Aparna Chatterjee, violin; Abraham Chen, violin; Rodrigo Haragutchi, violin; Rob Smithson, clarinet; and Joelle Portzer, trumpet.

Every year, about 1,500 young musicians compete for Western and Eastern Regional All State Orchestra. In September the NCMEA Orchestra picks the final 120 winners from both regional orchestras to form an N.C. State Honors Orchestra.

The honors orchestra will perform for the NCMEA convention in Winston-Salem in November.

Sunday afternoon, April 24th, 2005 the Cary Academy Orchestra successfully performed on the famous stage of the Boston Symphony Hall, one of the world’s best know performance venues, and home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops.

Like world famous orchestras, 43 CA MS and US orchestra students sat on the stage of this acoustically superb Symphony Hall (built in 1900) presented an outstanding music with exact bowing, nice posture and beautiful sound. We received many positive comments form the audience, other school directors and judges.

Among all 20 invited and participated Bands and Orchestras CA orchestra is one of the few smallest groups. Because of the schools size are not compatible the Festival does not issue the rank but only chose one Band and one Orchestra (according judge’s recommendation) to perform at the Encore Concert.

On Monday morning, April 25th, CA orchestra students had the privilege to participate the Master’s Classes lead by the Boston Symphony members. They were instructed in playing skills, orchestra leadership, and professional career. In the evening encore concert CA students enjoyed performance of the Festival Honors Band and Orchestra plus two selected groups:

Huron High School Symphony Band from Michigan. One of the GRAMMY Foundation’s list of top 100 Band Department in the nation for the past five years.
Upper Arlington High School Symphony Orchestra from Ohio. The winner of the Fame Festivals 2003 National Orchestra Cup.

During the Encore Concert, CA students were able to recognize and appreciate the high level of performance that can be achieved by individual school orchestra and band. Cary Academy also had seven students invited to participate in the Honors Band and Orchestra performance. They were: Abraham Chen, Aparna Chatterjee, Bryce Poll, Jeffie Chang, Murphy Chang, Nathaniel Ting, and Rodrigo Haragutchi. They had the privilege of being led by the famed Boston Pops Orchestra conductor Kith Lockhart.

During the Festival, student’s activities include the evening Banquet and Dance, visiting the Boston Aquarium, Harvard Univ, MIT, Berklee College of Music; they also walked on the Freedom Trail, Fenway Tour and had a great fun on the Duck tour….

I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks to the participating parents and chaperones: Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, Marcey Setzer, Rhonda Roberts, Kaja Lee, Bath Mann, Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Sally Nunnally, Mary Blondy, Dr. Lerch, Mr. and Mrs. Haragutchi, Dr. Chatterjee, Cathy Frank, Robin Bryson and all the school’s support with this fantastic opportunity.

While at the event, I discovered that one of my former students (18 years ago) is now a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She came to the hotel to meet me and has graciously accepted my invitation to come to Cary Academy for a week next year to instruct our students and join them in a Gala Concert.

Yiying Qiao

Four CA Middle school students won at the NC All-State Orchestra Festival (Eastern Regional) Competition:

Charlotte Kelly	Cello - 16th chair out of 20
Jeffie Chang	Viola - 2st chair out of 14
Nathaniel Ting	Violin - 10th chair out of 21
Corey Lerch	Bass - 3rd chair out of 5

Please join me to congratulate these excellent young musicians and thanks all of them for working hard to bring this great honor to our school.

Ten CA upper school students participated at the NC All-State Orchestra Festival (Eastern Regional). The concert was on Sunday, February 20th. Under the baton of Dr. Gregory Hurley (ECU) and Dr. James Richards (University of Missouri) the young musicians' performance was amazing and hardly to believe that this high level concert came from 2 days rehearsal.

Symphony Orchestra
Aparna Chatterjee	Violin I - 9th chair out of 24
Abraham Chen	Violin II - 1st chair out of 24
Rodrigo Haragutchi	Violin II - 6th chair out of 24
Charlotte Morgan	Viola - 14th chair out of 20
Andrew Bryson	Cello - 16th chair out of 22
Rob Smithson	Clarinet II
Eric Smith	French Horn III
Joelle Portzer	Trumpet II
Michelle Cobley	Harp
String Orchestra
Jeffrey Stanton	Viola - 2nd chair out of 20

Please join me to congratulate these excellent young musicians and thanks all of them for working hard to bring this great honor to our school.

Sr High

Jr High

Symphony Orchestra

Abraham Chen, First Violin
Aparna Chatterjee, First Violin
Bryce Poll, Second Violin
Eric Smith, Fourth Horn
Joelle Portzer, Trumpet
Zack Hobbs, Bass

String Orchestra

Andrew Bryson, Cello
Branden Woo, Violin
Jeffrey Stanton, Viola

Alex Su, Violin (2nd violin 17th chair)

Charlotte Morgan, Viola (5th chair)
Chloe Krakauer, Cello (5th chair)
Corey Lerch, Bass (6th chair)
Nathaniel Ting, Violin (1st violin 19th chair)
Rodrigo Haragutchi, Violin (1st violin 17th chair)

Guest Musicians:

Leslie Yuan (Violinist)
Jeremy M. Smith (Percussionist)
Frank Jones (Trombone)
Paul Johnson (Trumpet)
David Smith (Horn and Tuba)

Cary Academy Orchestra:

Abraham Chen, Rodrigo Haragutchi, Zack Hobbs,
Chloe Krakauer, Andrew Bryson, Murphy Chang,
Saige Clark, Michelle Cobley, Alex Crump,
Amelia Niemi, Joelle Portzer, Eric Smith,
Jeffrey Stanton, Nathaniel Ting, Brandon Woo

NC Eastern Regional Junior-High All-State Orchestra performance at Southern Pines, NC on May 3, 2003. Congratulations to our Junior-High All-State winners:

Five Cary Academy Ensembles earned “Superior” ratings at the recent Music Showcase Festivals in Virginia.

The Upper School Wind Ensemble earned a Superior rating and first place in High School Concert Band - Class A.

The Middle School String Orchestra earned a Superior rating and first place in Junior High School String Orchestra class. The Middle School String Orchestra also won the Overall Grand Champion Award. This is the highest award in this competition in the middle school/junior high, grade seven through nine, instrumental groups.

According to judge's recommendation, the Middle School orchestra first violin section earned an Outstanding Section Award and Rodrigo Haragutchi (’08), violin, earned an Outstanding Soloist Award.

The Upper School Jazz Band earned a Superior rating and first place in High School Jazz Ensemble - Class A.

The Middle School Wind Ensemble earned a Superior rating and first place in Middle School Concert Band - Class A.

The Honors Orchestra earned a Superior rating and first place in High School Orchestra/String Orchestra.

According to judge's recommendation, the Honors orchestra’s three soloists: Lorraine Bailey (’03), clarinet, Joelle Portzer (’06), trumpet, and Eric Smith (’05), french horn, earned Outstanding Soloist Awards.

Here are the video streaming files with the Orchestra performances in the event:

Here are the audio streaming files with the Upper School Orchestra performances in the event: