Professional. Polished. Polite. Enchanting! These are compliments the KWCSS students heard all weekend long from musicians, conductors and organizers. 32 students from the KWCSS performed three concerts with the KW Symphony for Symphony in Space during their Pops Series and Family Series  concerts at the Centre in the Square. What a hugely successful event! The students performed with poise and professionalism but also managed to have a lot of fun as well.

New friendships were made and old friendships strengthened throughout the rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule. This special event will be remembered and treasured for many, many years to come. Also on hand for the Family concert pre-show, were the members of the Amati Ensemble - our performance ensemble presented a lovely half hour concert/demo in the lobby. Congratulations to all for a tremendously successful event! Photos to follow shortly...stay tuned!

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has invited 34 young string school students to perform with them for their next Pops Concert series, Symphony in Space. These concerts will be taking place on February 18th at 8pm, February 19th at 2:30pm (a special shortened version for families) and 8pm. These keen young students have been busily rehearsing to prepare for this very special event. We are thrilled to have been asked as this will be an exciting adventure for our school. Performing as well as part of this event are the Amati Ensemble, providing music for the pre-concert show at the Family Edition of Symphony in Space, as well as some senior students who will be performing in a side-by-side concert with the members of the symphony. 

Profile: String Theory on p. 76 - A beautifully written and photographed article about the string school in the current issue (July/August 2010) of Grand Magazine. This article is titled "The Sisters of Strings" as it features  Martha and Olga Kalyniak, sisters and fellow teachers of the string school. 

The Opening Play-In has been a long-standing, very special event at the string school. The day begins with a group performance by the students, led by their teachers and our accompanist. It is amazing to hear how wonderful the students sound together, even after the summer break! After this half-hour of playing together, the students are treated to a short concert or demonstration by some of our finest local professional musicians. In the past 12 years, some of the featured performers have been early music and baroque  specialists, some of them in period costume, a professional cellist, the symphony viola section playing the beautiful Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, a violin and oboe duo and a trumpet player. We have even had a demonstration on how a pipe organ works and a bagpiper performing for the students as well. They just loved marching out with her!

This year, our students got a taste of something a little different. Larry Larson on trumpet and his buddy Ian Whitman on bass, gave the kids and parents a taste of jazz. It was so interesting to hear how each of them got their start in music and about the events in their lives that have led them to be able to play both jazz and classical styles of music. Larry and Ian played a lovely tune, "Summertime" by Gershwin, and they played it "straight" so that the kids could hear the tune as it was on the written page - then jazzing it up and improvising. Lots of heads were bobbing and toes were tapping today! Other favourites that were played today by this dynamic duo were "I Got Rhythm", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", the theme to the Flintstones cartoon show, and an amazing rendition of the Miles Davis tune, "So What".  Thank you Larry and Ian!

The morning concludes with something the students, parents, teachers and guests always look forward to....Cookie Time! It gives the families in the school a chance to socialize and get re-acquainted after the long break. We hope everyone enjoyed today's special event and we look forward to seeing you all soon at our first group class!