Eighteen music students (pictured above), ranging from sixth grade through high school, participated in the Columbia Festival Orchestra’s new education program “Take a Seat…in the Orchestra” in conjunction with CFO’s 3-day residency at PS21 (Performance Spaces for the 21st Century) in Chatham, NY, July 25-27, 2008.

The following students took their seats next to their CFO mentors: violins: Cathleen Alarcon, Jeffrey Girton, Elizabeth Moran, Trevor DePew, Lydia Curran and Deidre Kelly; viola: Samantha Oakes; cello: Patrick Jones; string basses: Alexander Toth; flutes: Glynnis MacDonald and Annalise Krajeski; clarinet: Angela Matthews and Sterlene Negron; trumpet: Michael Krajeski; french horns: Anna Costello, Austin Klein, and Bethany Meyers; trombone: Raja Pillai. School districts represented include Hudson, Chatham, Ichabod Crane, Taconic Hills and Germantown, as well as Cairo-Durham, Hawthorne Valley, Gt. Barrington Rudolph Steiner, John Jay, Averill Park, and Mineola Middle School.

For a complete program listing CLICK HERE.  For additional photos CLICK HERE.

CFO’s Take a Seat program will continue into the fall with two opportunities for students (both taking place at St. James Church in Chatham):

• October 19 – flute reading session with the 4 members of Flute Force
• December 20 – Community Sing of Handel’s Messiah

More information will be available shortly about these programs.

The Columbia Festival Orchestra, founded in 1988 by artistic director and conductor Gwen Gould, is a professional orchestra based in Columbia County, NY, whose mission is to present classical music and other concerts to the highest degree of excellence and to cultivate an appreciation of the art of music in young people and adults.

Click the links below for more information:
Columbia Festival Orchestra
Take a Seat…in the Orchestra