Free holiday concert Tuesday night: Westside Symphonette

| Holidays | West Seattle video | WS culture/arts

Westside Symphonette director Toni Reineke let us sneak in to the orchestras’ rehearsal tonight at the West Seattle High School theater as they prepared for tomorrow night’s Holiday Concert. The “Jingle Bell Rock” rendition above — with the combined junior and senior groups — is just one of many holiday singalongs you’ll get to enjoy, so bring your caroling chops (and your Messiah score if you have one, since “Hallelujah Chorus” is on the program too!). The lineup has got a few non-holiday selections as well; conducted by Nse Ekpo, the Junior Orchestra practiced Larry Clark‘s “Engines of Resistance” while we were there, and WSB Junior Member of the Team, Torin, got the whole thing on cinema-verite walking video:

Admission to tomorrow night’s concert — 7 pm at WSHS — is free, but donations are appreciated, as Westside Symphonette is self-supporting. Musicians of all ages are always welcome to join the Westside Symphonette – contact Toni Reineke at tonireineke@comcast.net or 206-243-6955. Meantime, the next week-plus is prime time for holiday concerts, and you’ll find them all listed on the WSB Holidays page (if you know of one that’s NOT there, please forgive us for missing it, and e-mail us to let us know!).

Miranda Taylor December 10, 2008 (9:15 am)

The concert was so much fun last night! Every week the Westside Symphonette gets better and better. Many of us adults haven’t played in an orchestra since since our school years, and so we start out rusty. But with frequrent practice we’re improving as quickly as the students do. I loved Nse’s quote, “I know we’re just a community orchestra, but can you practice that passage 10 minutes every day this week?” I think everyone came through with more than that every day. Because we’re not “just a community orchestra.” We’re getting GOOD!!! And can our audience sing Hallelujah or what? It gave me the chills!

If you missed the concert, too bad. Mark your calendars for our next not to be missed concert dates: March 3 (tentative) and May 5, 2009.

P.S.The dress rehearsal photos miss how very professional we look in concert.

WSB December 10, 2008 (9:29 am)

If anybody has a pic from the concert, please send – would have loved to be there but unfortunately last night was a confluence of many major meetings, so we’re glad at least that Toni invited us to the dress rehearsal! Congrats on another successful concert, I’ll add those tentative dates to the calendar since we’re already tracking into next year – TR

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