Special Visitors Enhance Huntington Orchestra
This year's Huntington High School orchestra is comprised of some exceptional musicians. The orchestra is beginning to gear up for its winter concert and the evening's program promises to be quite special. Two recent visitors worked with the student-musicians and enhanced the teenager's varied talents.
Local composter Geoffrey Gardner stopped by to hear juniors and seniors rehearse "Venezia," a piece written by the local musician. "He was inspired to write it after visiting Venice, Italy," said Lisa Leonardi, a Huntington music teacher who directs the high school orchestra.
A retired Grumman engineer, Mr. Gardner always wanted to compose music. "He has been taking lessons in composition for several years," Ms. Leonardi said. "I was fortunate enough to meet him when one of his pieces was featured on the Sr. Pops program at our intergenerational concert in March 2012. He made his way backstage after the concert and offered to show me some of his work."
Ms. Leonardi eventually decided on "Venezia," which has been described as a lyrical piece "that will definitely take you somewhere else." Mr. Gardner was invited to attend a Huntington High School rehearsal in order to provide the student-musicians with feedback and "workshop" the finer points of the music. "The students were delighted to have feedback directly from the composer and to interact with him," Ms. Leonardi said. "It was educational for all of us!"
The Huntington orchestra will perform the piece at its Wednesday, December 19 concert, which Mr. Gardner is scheduled to attend. The community is invited to attend the show, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Admission is free.
A second memorable visit was paid by Sue Ferrers, an Australian orchestra teacher who now resides and teaches strings near Frankfurt, Germany. "Sue contacted me through the internet, as I just finished my two-year term as president of the New York American String Teacher's Association," Ms. Leonardi said. "She Googled string organizations in New York and located me!"
Ms. Ferrers came to New York for a 10-day visit. "She wanted to see some typical string programs mainly because the programs in Germany are not in the core curriculum," Ms. Leonardi said. "Ms. Ferrers explained to me that in Australia she was lucky enough to have a vibrant orchestra program, modeled after the music programs in the United States! How exciting it is to hear that our marvelous music programs are held in such high regard!"
The visitor from Australia spent a day with Ms. Leonardi, watching and interacting with Huntington High School string students throughout the morning and afternoon and jotting down copious notes. "I was happy to help her in her efforts to grow her elite string program into a core content program," Ms. Leonardi said.