Flawless
The December 9th concert featured two groups of young musicians. They were the LaGrange Symphony Youth Orchestra and the LSYO String Ensemble. (photos below) Introduced by LSO Executive Director, Raylene Carter, the String Ensemble took the stage first. Directed by Sam Lee, they performed three pieces with great tone and precision. The music played was Coronation March, by Elliot Del Borgo, Snow Chimes, by Stanley H. Purvis, and Apollo Suite: Prelude, Waltz, and Dance by Merle J. Isaac. They did a great job and the audience thanked them with wonderful rounds of applause.
The evening had a relaxed atmosphere. It was happily an unhurried concert, which was a welcome relief from the stresses and activities of the season. The beautiful First Baptist Church on the Square was decorated for the holidays and provided the perfect venue for the LSYO concert. Part of the reason for the unhurried pace was to give time for folks in the second part of the program to arrive. They had gotten caught in traffic for an extended period of time, but arrived just as it was time for their performance.
The LaGrange Symphony Youth Orchestra took the stage with their director Michael Giel. The pieces they performed were: Brook Green Suite Prelude, by Gustav Holst, In the Company of Angels, by William Hofeldt, Everything, by Larry Clark, and The Odyssey, by Soon Hee Newbold. There were two soloists for Clark’s Everything. They were Alayna Endicott, Violin, and Milly Criswell, Harp.
The LSYO’s performance was terrific. Their blend was beautiful and the intonation had great expression and depth. The music chosen was more advanced than you would expect, and the delivery was exceptional. Both groups had a very professional demeanor, and both groups looked sharp. The audience loved the concert and several of them had smart phones capturing the performance.
Well done! Thank you LaGrange Symphony Youth Orchestra and LSYO String Ensemble for a lovely evening of great music! Thank you to everyone involved in helping to make this concert a success.
