Onsom Orchestra is for Grade 3-5 students interested in a unique ensemble experience, collaborating with instrumentalists from the String Program and Rising Band.
Students are expected to engage in teamwork, refine music skills, and develop personal and artistic expression through orchestral music.
This is a second ensemble for the Onsom musicians thus further commitment to personal practice to foster musical growth and aesthetic awareness is required. The Onsom Orchestra is a rehearsal ensemble, where students are expected to independently practice and hone their skills.
Onsom has a higher personal management expectations, and appointments are reviewed at the end of the Winter Performance Season prior to the start of the Spring Season rehearsals.
Onsom Orchestra rehearses at 3pm on Friday during the ASA Term One and Term Two.
Students in Onsom play in one other Ensemble class.
Selected Rising Band students in Onsom drop Monday or Thursday 3pm Rising Band Rehearsal.
Selected String students also attend one another String class.
Learning Expectations for the Onsom Ensemble student:
Engage in teamwork and cooperation by working together to create and perform Instrumental Orchestral music.
Refine listening, visual and aural literacy, increase technical skills and interpretation of music.
Develop and refine personal skills, habits, and processes for success in learning music.
Extend personal and artistic expression and deepen aesthetic awareness through music appreciation and performance.
Students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in playing repertoire scales, (incl. arpeggios for strings), with accurate intonation and bowing or tonguing style with various articulation. Percussion should play repertoire rudiments with accurate sticking.
Independent rhythm reading of whole, half, quarter, & eighth notes (and respective rests) is expected. Understanding of sixteenth-notes, dotted rhythms and syncopated patterns is advantageous.
Ability to identify and interpret expressive (volume, tempo, articulation) symbols and directions, and to accurately annotate scores with conductor direction or score clarification.
Students should exhibit the ability to play independently within an ensemble, as orchestra participation requires blending with others, following a conductor, and maintaining their part in multi-voice textures.
Supporting each other as a music team by demonstrating rehearsal etiquette, reviewing rehearsal notes and preparing for rehearsals in advance through home practice.
Commitment:
Course = 45 minutes per week
Personal Practice = 60+ minutes per week.
Onsom Orchestra performs at both Band and String concerts. This group is a rehearsal ensemble. Onsom musicians are expected to engage in the practice and post-rehearsal notes to be prepared for the Onsom rehearsal.