Ponca City and Stillwater Public Schools Hold Joint Orchestra Concert

Ponca City and Stillwater Public Schools recently held a joint orchestra concert at the Stillwater Performing Arts Center. The groups rehearsed together from 5:00 p.m. to 6: 00 p.m. then ate dinner together at 6:00 p.m. The concert began at 7:00 p.m. Stillwater had 61 students participate, and 59 of Ponca City’s 65 Symphony Strings musicians made the trip. Combined there were 120 musicians on the stage.

The Stillwater High School Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonic Orchestra each performed two selections, under the direction of Mr. Scott Jackson. Ponca City then performed two selections: “Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla” by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (arranged for string orchestra by Robert D. MaCashin) and “Ammerland” by Jacob de Haan (arranged for string orchestra by Ponca City’s own Ryan Lipscomb). Ponca City School Instrumental Music Coordinator Dan Larson said, “I heard our band practicing sight reading with this beautiful piece “Ammerland” a couple of springs ago. I made the comment that the piece would make a terrific selection for string orchestra. A couple of months later, Mr. Lipscomb handed me a score and parts to a string orchestra arrangement he had written. I picked this year to debut it.”

The two orchestras combined to perform “Andante Festivo” by Jean Sibelius (conducted by Stillwater High School director) and “March Slav” by Peter Illich Tschaikovsky, arranged by Carrie Lane Gruselle (conducted by Dan Larson). Larson stated, “It was an incredible sound. We had a good number of parents that made the trip to Stillwater and a dozen of Po-Hi graduates were there. Stillwater superintendent, Ms. Ann Caine, loved the concerts and hopes we make this an annual event, which would be a new tradition between our two school districts.”