In celebration of their hard work schooling at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are proud to present students from Arizona School for the Arts playing along with our Festival Orchestra!
Early in the school year, Musicfest contacted teachers for ways to support their goals during a season where band and orchestra programs were all but shut down. These conversations led to a special partnership with ASA this season to engage and encourage them with a unique performance goal – preparing music from the standard orchestra repertoire and recording themselves playing along with some of the finest musicians from around the world.
In collaboration with a local composer, Musicfest provided edited and reduced parts as well as specially-edited audio and video tracks from our February 20, 2020 performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for them to practice and play along to. Students diligently learned their parts, received coaching from their teacher, and recorded themselves performing in synch with the orchestra back to Musicfest.
With their recordings in hand, we integrated their videos into a unified, triumphant performance alongside parts of the Festival Orchestra’s breathtaking performance of the final two movements from Mussorgsky’s masterpiece. We’re proud to share the below video with you, which initially premiered during the ASA end-end-year gala on June 3, 2021.
We hope you enjoy this special presentation below; Bravo to these students on their hard work over the past year!