DHS Orchestra

Websites

http://groups.dcn.org/dhs-orchestras

http://groups.dcn.org/dsoma

The DHS Orchestra is three ensembles: the Chamber Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra, and a third Baroque Orchestra was approved for the 2009-2010 school year. For more than 70 years the HS orchestra was just one group, often performing as a full symphony (with brass, woodwinds and percussion), or otherwise as a string orchestra. In 2005 enrollment grew so as to allow for a full Symphony Orchestra and a string Chamber Orchestra. Membership in the Symphony and Baroque Orchestras is by audition in the spring. No audition is required to join the Chamber Orchestra. All groups are directed by Angelo Moreno. Since Angelo came to his position in 2000, the size of the orchestra program has quadrupled in size. In June of 2006, the Symphony Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Their repertoire has become more challenging as the strength of the program has grown. At the start of the 2005-2006 school year, the Symphony Orchestra performed George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, featuring Morgan Jones on piano as part of a fundraising auction at the Mondavi Center. The Carnegie Hall program included the entire Symphony #9 (New World Symphony) by Antonin Dvorak.

In Spring of every year, the DHS Symphony Orchestra performs together with other elementary and junior high orchestra groups at the Mondavi Center as part of the Bodil Wennberg Concert to raise funds for the Davis public schools orchestra program. The 2007 Wennberg concert featured a joint performance of the Madrigal Choir for selections from the Dvorak Requiem. This concert usually features the winner of the DHS Concerto Competition for Davis High School students. The competition has both an instrumental and a vocal category.

Recent concerto competition instrumental category winners include:

2001 Kent H., violin
2002 Laurie K., violin
2003 Michael L., cello
2004 Nick W., violin
2005 Serena Y., piano
2006 Cynthia H., piano
2007 Elaine F., cello
2008 Angela Y., piano
2009 May Z., piano

Another highlight of the 2006-07 academic year was the performance of Beethoven's Symphony #6, the Pastoral Symphony.

The entire DHS music department (band, choir, and orchestra) received national recognition as a 2007 Grammy Signature School.

In the 2007-2008 school year, the secondary orchestra program took the lead in a combined music program effort to raise funds to continue the elementary music program (band and strings) for the following year. The fundraising was necessary due to proposed budget cuts that included eliminating elementary music along with other programs. This was coordinated through the combined secondary orchestra booster organization, DSOMA (Davis Schools Orchestral Music Association). Measure W, which passed in November of 2008, secured funding for elementary music for the next three years.

In recent years, many orchestra students have auditioned for and been accepted to All-state and national honor orchestras.

In early February, the DHS Symphony Orchestra has the tradition of performing outreach concerts directed to elementary school kids. The selections in recent years are as follows:

2008 "Toy Box" by Francine Dillon
2009 "Peter and the Wolf" by S. Prokofiev
2010 "The Composer is Dead" by Lemony Snicket and Nathaniel Stookey

Info from DHS yearbooks.

1935-1941 Norman Walters
1941 Jack Taylor
1942-1943 Ralph Smith
1943-1945 June Cunningham (nee Beckman)
1945-1948 Ralph Smith
1948-1955 Forrest Honnold (also band & choir)
1955-1960 Don Brewer (also band director)
1960-1962 Walter Cothary
1962-1963 Don Brewer
1963-1966 Madeline Brewer
1966-1993 Richard M. Brunelle (also choir director)
1993-1996 Karen Gardias (also choir director)
1996-1997 Kristen Hedegaard
1997-2000 Stephen Kidd
2000-present Angelo Moreno

• Read a story in Davis Life Magazine.

• See also the Davis Senior High School entry.
  

• See online videos of the group.