Skip to main content

Saint David's Philharmonic Ensemble Performs at Carnegie Hall

 The Saint David's Philharmonic Ensemble took the stage at Carnegie Hall Sunday, performing in A Festival of Orchestras. They played beautifully.

Under the direction of their conductor, Philip Hough, the boys had been preparing for this concert since September. The quality of their playing demonstrated the months of effort and practice that preceded the event. Onstage and off, they were consummate professionals, confidently delivering a versatile program that featured these classical pieces and contemporary works: Finale from Surprise Symphony (Haydn), The Pink Panther (Mancini), Frandaele from L'Arlsesienne Suite No. 2 (Bizet), Promenade and The Great Gate of Kiev  from Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky). The boys were joined onstage by alumni Clifford C.'19,  Brian S. '19, and Hewitt S. '19.

We are so proud of the way our boys represented Saint David's, both through their comportment and their performance. Congratulations to Mr. Hough, to the boys, and to the Faculty who performed and our Ensemble Coaches: Erin Dupree, John Francis, Gary Kessler, Jeffrey Moore, Adele More, Meg Myette, Nicholas Reeb, Kerrick Sasaki, Aaron Van Heyningen.

A Festival of Orchestras is held every three years. In addition to Saint David's, it features concerts by Brearley, Rudolf Steiner, Packer Collegiate, and the United Nations School.

Popular posts from this blog

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Bringing Sound to Space

In the second entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative's quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," Saint David's reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Cathy O'Neill explores the pedagogical power of play in the education of young boys. BRINGING SOUND TO SPACE It began with a mound of mangled metal and the vapor of a vision gleaned from recent comments and random fact-dropping by the Pre-K boys. Unsure of what exactly I was looking for, but fueled by the idea of a makeshift rocket to dovetail with our upcoming space unit, I gingerly picked through the scrap pile until my hands grazed an old VW control panel devoid of its dashboard. Eureka! An array of knobs, dials, and buttons - while in reality, dead as doornails - in the right small hands, would become the epicenter of our NASA-inspired dramatic play corner. With a couple of lawn chairs and some old CB radio microphones to round out the set, engines would be ignited by the power of imagination. All systems go...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values  — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...
Read more