Basin Community Orchestra seeking
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 1 month AGO
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | February 26, 2020 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Rehearsals for the spring season of the Basin Community Orchestra begin March 3, and its conductors are looking for musicians who want to join the orchestra.
Practices will be 6;30 to 8:30 Tuesdays at the Wallenstien Theater on the Big Bend Community College campus. The orchestra is scheduled to perform during Springfest, Moses Lake’s annual town celebration, on Memorial Day weekend. A second performance tentatively is scheduled for June 2 at the Wallenstien Theater.
For the spring season the Basin Community Orchestra is combining with the BBCC orchestra, according to information from co-conductor Dan Beich
Orchestra member Don Myers said musicians must be at least 16 years old to participate, but that’s the only restriction. “We have members 70, 80 years old as well. Anybody is welcome, all skill levels.”
Co-conductors for the spring season are Beich, band instructor at Moses Lake High School, and Michael Dzbenski, BBCC music instructor.
“An opportunity for musicians to be able to play,” Myers said. Organizers are looking for wind instrument and string players, percussionists and brass players. There are, Beich wrote, occasional parts for pianists and harpists. “We are lacking in string players here,” Myers said, and string players are being encouraged to join.
“We’re heavy on the wind instruments,” Myers said, “So we definitely need our strings.”
“We haven’t picked the music yet,” Myers said. The concert program will be selected after conductors get a look at the composition of the orchestra.
Its repertoire includes any and all kinds of music performed by orchestras, Myers said. “All sorts of different genres.” The orchestra’s last performance was its holiday concert in December. That program featured music for children, he said - television and movie themes, even a version of “Baby Shark.”
Advance registration is requested, Beich said. People can register at the Basin Community Orchestra Facebook page.
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