Combined Elementary Orchestra “Spook Fest”
to be District’s First

Next week, Rio Rancho Public Schools’ first elementary orchestra students will join the Eagle Ridge and Mountain View Middle School orchestras to perform in the district’s first concert featuring elementary orchestras.

The concert, dubbed “Spook Fest,” will be held on Tuesday, October 26th beginning at 7 PM at the Rio Rancho High School Performing Arts Center, 301 Loma Colorado NE.

During the first half of the concert, all 100 young musicians will perform special pieces that combine music, poetry, and sound effects. Guest readers, including several RRPS principals, assistant principals, and school librarians and counselors, will recite poetry or stories evoking sound effects that the students play on their instruments. One of the highlights will be an original story, “Are You Gon’ Be Here When John Gets Here,” read by and written especially for this concert by Puesta del Sol librarian Stephen Pla. The second half of the concert will feature selections played by the more advanced orchestras from Eagle Ridge and Mountain View.

The elementary orchestra program is new to the Rio Rancho district and is open to fifth graders at any Rio Rancho elementary school. After-school classes are currently held at four schools; parents of students at elementary schools that do not host orchestras are responsible for transporting their children to one of the host schools. Students learn to play melodies in unison and in simple harmony, as well as self discipline, appropriate posture, beautiful tone, musical literacy, and self-confidence. They explore string instruments and the sounds they make, proper care of instruments, and learn to perform as a group.

Teacher Karen Ginther is organizing the program and teaches the orchestra programs hosted by Enchanted Hills and Ernest Stapleton. Community member Greta Kerrigan teaches students in the orchestras at Puesta del Sol and Colinas del Norte.

The program will enroll new students in the fall of 2005. For further information on the elementary orchestra program, contact Kristin Rauch at 896-5775.

Back