Wheeling Dist. 21 musicians not too young to jive

After a day filled with jazz and improvising, violinist Andrea Sennett of Wheeling had no inhibitions. She was one of the first to jump up and solo last week with the Wheeling High School orchestra.

Up on stage, Sennett headed right for the microphone where she improvised on her fiddle while orchestra members played under the direction of famed jazz violinist, Randy Sabien.

The concert came at the end of Wheeling High School's first outreach festival for its feeder schools, playfully called, "Fall Fiddle Fling Thing."

Sennett was one of 150 middle school string players who came from Holmes and London middle schools in Wheeling, and MacArthur Junior High School in Prospect Heights.

Together with the 70-member string section from the Wheeling High School orchestra they tried their hand at alternative string music such as jazz, folk and Latin rock.

"As part of the orchestra tradition, we usually play classical music," said Tobin Langridge, Wheeling orchestra director. "This opens up a whole new world of opportunities."

Sabien's own background mirrored the students he led. Growing up in Rockford he trained as a classical violinist, before his heart led him to the guitar and piano, allowing him to be in a rock band.

"My two worlds blended when I realized I was playing the same harmonies and chords on the guitar and piano, as on my violin," Sabien told the students.

During his post graduate work at The Berklee College of Music in Boston, he founded the jazz string department, and he has performed in the medium ever since.

Sabien led a list of clinicians who worked with the young musicians during breakout workshops. They included Edgar Gabriel, one of the string teachers at Harper College who specializes in fiddling, and Bill Kronenberg, a longtime teacher and jazz violinist with Arlington Heights Elementary District 25's Music For Youth program.

Students were grouped by instrument - cellos, violas, first and second violins - before they met for the culminating concert with the high school orchestra.

Joey Kollins, a 7th grade cellist from MacArthur Middle School, said he enjoyed learning some of the new finger techniques he could use, as well as recognizing the different patterns in the music in order to improvise.

Katherine Wargo, an 8th grade viola player from Holmes Middle School, learned to improvise during an exercise called "call and response," where she tried to imitate what her partner played and then add her own twist to the music.

"It was fun seeing the different things I could do with my violin," Wargo said.

Even some of the high school musicians had not played outside the realm of classical music before.

"This is all brand new," said sophomore Jeremy Frederick. "It's fun, it just broadens my knowledge of the instrument."

Lauren Wargaski, orchestra teacher at London Middle School, said she brought her upper level students to the festival, adding that instruction on string instruments in Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 starts in fourth grade.

"Our numbers are growing," Wargaski said. "All the parents are really supportive of music and band. This area is really unusual in that way."