WMHS students perform joint music concert with Montgomery Philharmonic
Montgomery Philharmonic’s concert master tunes the orchestra
Three generations of local musicians gathered February 2 in the O’Shea Theater to perform in a joint concert, allowing student musicians to gain experience from performing with more experienced players.
Music students from Watkins Mill High School, Neelsville Middle School, Montgomery Village Middle School, and the Montgomery Philharmonic collaborated to present Inspired by Youth. The concert is an outreach program by the Philharmonic to help improve music programs in schools. “There is experience to be gained from [the concert],” sophomore violinist Christian Boyd said.
The Montgomery Philharmonic is a county-based orchestra located in Gaithersburg. It provides opportunities for musicians in the community to create music together. The Philharmonic hopes that “being part of these programs will help encourage the Montgomery Village schools to build a strong, rounded orchestra program,” Montgomery Philharmonic’s concertmaster Lydia Leong said.
The collaboration with the Philharmonic began with Sandra Ragusa, Music Director of the Montgomery Philharmonic. Ragusa started off teaching elementary, middle and high school music, which inspired her to do a joint concert. “I love working with young people,” Ragusa said.
Ragusa met with a WMHS music director and they decided to give a concert to build up the string program and later invited the band. This is the concert’s sixth year. “Hopefully we’re continuing [the concert] to build the music program in the schools,” Ragusa added.
Students and members of the Philharmonic worked with each other in improving and sharing musical skills. “The music program [at WMHS] is relatively small, so this concert [was] a very good opportunity for people to get the feel of what it’s like to play in a very large orchestra,” sophomore violinist Jwoyal Ranjit said.
“It’s a great thing for us to do here,” instrumental music director Peter Kielar said. “Hopefully it will grow the [music] program.”
“Every year we come and there’s a new [group] of kids,” Leong added. “[Students] are the future of our orchestra.” WMHS music students are now preparing for their spring concert.
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