Rock Bridge High School Orchestras

The Rock Bridge High School Chamber Orchestra Spring Concert May 2021... Enjoy music by John Williams, Edward Elgar, Aram Khachaturian, Clara Schumann, Michael Giacchino, Alexander Borodin, Alan Menken, Soon Hee Newbold, and Hector Berlioz. Look for some small surprises along the way! https://youtu.be/gxht6Ojhvk0 See more

Lucrecia Roces Kasilag was a Filipino composer and pianist known for incorporating indigenous Filipino instruments into orchestral works and productions. She was born in Sam Fernando, La Union, Phillipines in 1918. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother was a violinist and violin teacher. Kasilag grew up in Paco, Manila and attended high school at Phillipine Women's University, where she also went on to major in English and receive a Bachelor of Arts degree. She atte...nded St. Scholastica's College in Malate, Manila where she majored in piano and graduated with a Music Teacher's Diploma. Kasilag began composing during World War II, performed her own compositions, and began teaching at the University of the Phillipines' Conservatory of Music. She completed a Bachelor of Music degree in 1949 and then attended Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where she studied theory and composition. After completing school she toured as a concert pianist until a congenital weakness in her hand forced her to retire. Kasilag founded the Bayanihan Folks Arts Center for research and theatrical presentations and was involved with the Bayanihan Phillipine Dance Company. She wrote more than 350 compositions that included orchestral works, folk songs, indigenous music, operas, chamber music, and more. She passed away in 2008 at the age of 89, just shy of her 90th birthday. #AAPIHeritageMonth #asianandpacificislanderheritagemonth #filipinomusic #phillipines #filipinoheritage

Now that we have completed recording our concert, chamber orchestra students are working on writing their own compositions! They are working in small groups to create a short piece of music that we can play in class during the last three days of school. Hearing wonderful things, brilliant and clever ideas, and seeing lots of great teamwork!

The Rock Bridge chamber orchestra completed recording their performance today. It will take a few days to put it all together, but we cannot wait to show you what we've prepared for our families and friends. The students have worked so hard and have had a lot of fun working towards having an amazing performance. You will not be disappointed!

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The purpose of AAPI Heritage Month is to recognize contributions and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Today we recognize Soon Hee Newbold. Soon Hee Newbold is a composer, actress, conductor, musician, film producer, screenwriter, and director. Born in South Korea, she was adopted, grew up in Maryland, and began playing piano at age five, and violin at age seven. Newbold received her Bachelor of Mus...ic degree from James Madison University. It was there that she studied film scoring, orchestration, and audio production. Newbold is a martial artist and is a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, second degree black belt in hapkido, and black belt in kigumdo. As a musician, Newbold travels around the world as a guest composer and conductor, and has had works performed at Midwest Clinic, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. Her works are also performed in orchestra classrooms around the world. She writes primarily for string orchestra, but has composed full orchestra pieces and arrangements of various works. She has also contributed to the string method book series "New Directions for Strings." The Rock Bridge chamber orchestra is currently performing her piece "Perseus," which features challenging meter changes, variations in tempo, and even false harmonics, among other techniques. The works of Soon Hee Newbold are frequently performed by orchestras at Rock Bridge. #asianandpacificislanderheritagemonth #AAPIHeritageMonth #AsianAmericanMusic