Orchestra festival at Hersey shows off local talent

Long before any discussion came up regarding cutting the position of orchestra director to part time, Hersey High School's fine arts officials began planning their annual Orchestra Festival.

This year's event took place Wednesday, and it was the 22nd annual festival. The evening concert showcased Hersey's feeder orchestras -- including those from River Trails and MacArthur middle schools, and Arlington Heights Elementary District 25's Music For Youth -- playing along side of Hersey's Symphonic Orchestra.

Opening the festival was Hersey's innovative "Untamed Jazz Orchestra," now in its second year and made up of students playing violin, viola, cello, bass and piano.

Each of the middle-school orchestras displayed their range, playing a classical piece and a lighter number, generally one that included fiddling, before Robert Hasty, a member of the conducting faculty at Northwestern University, took the stand to serve as guest conductor.

It was a coming home of sorts for Hasty. He served as conductor of the Metropolis Youth Symphony in Arlington Heights for two years, and some of his young musicians now play in Hersey's orchestra.

Hasty led Hersey's orchestra for two pieces, culminating in a rousing rendition of the original score from the movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean," for which he gave his young musicians two thumbs up.

He then led a so-called "mass orchestra" made up of the combined ensembles, which totaled more than 200 musicians, playing Franz Schubert's "Rosamunde Overture," and Tchaikovsky's powerful "Marche Slave."

At the end of the performance, the crowd that filled one side of the gymnasium gave the students a standing ovation.

Hasty commended the young musicians -- and their teachers -- for their abilities, before telling them how lucky they were to live in a community that values music and music education.

"Now that I am at Northwestern, I hear from the admissions department how much the applications are going up, up, up," Hasty said.

"Of course anyone who applies to Northwestern has the academics it requires, but the one thing that increasingly sets students apart, they tell me, is their well-rounded education."