Lafayette High School
Chamber Orchestra
KMEA Professional Development Conference
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Hyatt Regency Ballroom
3:55pm - 4:35pm
The Lafayette High School Orchestra Department includes six performing groups including the Chamber Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, String Orchestra, Fiero Strings, an after school gig group, and Full Symphony Orchestra. Our program strives to bring together student musicians from the Lafayette Band and Choir Departments to perform such works by Beethoven, Bernstein, Shostakovich, Orff, Faure, Vivaldi, and Mozart.
The Orchestra department has consistently received Distinguished ratings at KMEA Large Ensemble Performance Assessment events. Through the dedication of our faculty, private teachers, and parent support, Lafayette has a strong tradition of music excellence and artistic development.
Our chamber orchestra was invited to perform at the 2018 ASTA National Orchestra Festival and received second place in their division. In 2020 and 2015, the chamber and full orchestra was invited to perform at the KMEA State Conference. The attainment of these and many other additional honors have come as a direct result of the dedication and work of current and former orchestra members of which belong to a rich tradition of musical and personal integrity.
The Orchestra department has consistently received Distinguished ratings at KMEA Large Ensemble Performance Assessment events. Through the dedication of our faculty, private teachers, and parent support, Lafayette has a strong tradition of music excellence and artistic development.
Our chamber orchestra was invited to perform at the 2018 ASTA National Orchestra Festival and received second place in their division. In 2020 and 2015, the chamber and full orchestra was invited to perform at the KMEA State Conference. The attainment of these and many other additional honors have come as a direct result of the dedication and work of current and former orchestra members of which belong to a rich tradition of musical and personal integrity.
Violin IKaiya Bensing*
Ryan McGuffey* Tess Nelson* Ashley Powell* Annabelle Raybould* Arrow Watt* Violin IIBayleigh Chinn*
Caroline Gravil* Mina Hartman* Abby Hughes Rio Kawashima* Jose Lino* Charles Martin* |
ViolaJulian Dziubla*
Meredith Lee* Eloise Logsdon Mary Richardson* Johanna Shin* Ellie White CelloLucas Falco*
Jonathan Francis* Pat Nontapan* Griffin Shrout |
BassJohn Mason Copeland*
* Denotes 2024 KMEA All State Participant
|
Program Notes
Dimitri Shostakovich
Sinfonia for String Orchestra from String Quartet No. 8,
II. Allegro molto and III. Allegretto (attacca between movements)
Soloists: Annabelle Raybould, Jose Lino, Pat Nontapan
In the summer of 1960 Shostakovich's work on the score of a Soviet-East German film took him to Dresden, the German city that had been destroyed in 1945 by an Allied firebombing which killed more people than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There, in a span of three days, Shostakovich composed a quartet inscribed “In memory of victims of fascism and war.” That much is beyond question. Everything else about this quartet, its genesis, and its meaning, has been much debated.
The Eighth Quartet quotes liberally from Shostakovich’s own music and uses his personal motto theme, suggesting that it is about Shostakovich himself. Shostakovich was quoted in Testimony, a book purporting to be his recollections told to the Russian journalist Solomon Volkov (and published in America after Shostakovich's death), as contradicting his inscription, saying that the quartet is clearly pure autobiography and “you have to be blind and deaf” to think it about fascism; the implication being that it was really about the composer's own struggles against Stalinist totalitarianism, disguised to avoid official retribution.
But there are reasons to doubt this description as well. If the disguise were so transparent as to fool only the blind and deaf, it would scarcely have served its purpose. Testimony has been derided for being more Volkov's version of what he thought Westerners wanted to read than Shostakovich's own words, and demonstrated to be at least partially fraudulent. Moreover, some of the quartet has no apparent autobiographical connection (for example, the dramatic appearance of a “Jewish” theme in the middle movement seems a reference to the Holocaust). The situation is complicated by timing: in 1960 Shostakovich became a Communist Party member and First Secretary of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Composers Union.
Thus while the Eighth Quartet is clearly full of extramusical significance, exactly what it signifies is unclear. It could be an orthodox Soviet artist's personal revulsion against the fruits of fascism; or a disguised dissident protest against the Soviet state, or an outcry against totalitarianism of any kind. All these viewpoints, and a few others, have been advanced by persons of intelligence and good will, and we are unlikely ever to know with any certainty what Shostakovich's real message was, or whether there was a specific message, as opposed to a series of emotional impressions and reactions, at all.
The quartet is in five movements played without pause. Its most important landmark, and primary building block, is a four-note theme built on an abbreviation of the composer's name, DSCH, which becomes D-E-flat-C-B in German nomenclature. Shostakovich had used it as a theme previously, notably in his Tenth Symphony. The quartet begins by introducing this four-note motif fugally. It is followed by a theme (in the first violin and viola) from the introduction of his First Symphony, the work that first brought him to national prominence. The two themes are part of a loose rondo-like structure that also includes a descending theme in the first violin that refers to his Fifth Symphony, the work that restored him to favor in 1937 after official attacks had endangered his career, if not his life.
The elegiac mood of the first movement is shattered by the following Allegro molto, a Blitzkrieg out of which several versions of the DSCH theme, in varying note lengths, emerge. At a climactic moment in mid-movement, the violins wail out a theme from Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio, which was written in 1944. In a less controversial portion of Testimony that may express much of his artistic creed, Shostakovich called this a “Jewish” theme, saying: “Jewish folk music has made a most powerful impression on me… it can appear to be happy while it is tragic. It's almost always laughter through tears. This quality… is close to my ideas of what music should be. There should always be two layers in music. Jews were tormented so long that they learned to hide their despair. They express despair in dance music.”
The third movement is a spooky little waltz-rondo in G minor or major — the violin's melody (the DSCH motif) continually sounds a B-natural (the distinguishing note in a G-major scale) against the B-flat (which distinguishes the G-minor scale) in the viola's accompaniment. This feeling of knowing that there is a key but not knowing what it is, far more unsettling than being in no key at all, is a hallmark of Shostakovich's style. The third section of the rondo goes into duple time and introduces the march-like principal theme of the First Cello Concerto, composed the previous year.
The movement dies away in a recapitulation of its themes, with the cello concerto's five-note motif and three-note martial accompaniment heard last. The first violin, left alone for a few bars, elongates it, at which point the other instruments begin the fourth movement by transforming the three-note accompaniment into an ominous banging that interrupts equally ominous soundings of a new theme. It has been suggested that the banging represents gunfire, and the pianissimo droning of the first violin represents distant aircraft. That droning becomes the first four notes of the Dies irae from the Catholic requiem mass (not coincidentally, these are the DSCH notes in a different order), followed immediately by the lower three instruments sounding a Russian funeral anthem (“Tormented by the weight of bondage, you glorify death with honor”). The banging transformation of the cello concerto theme comes again; then the violins, over droning low Cs in the cello and viola, play a Russian revolutionary song (“Languishing in prison”). This is followed by a melody, in the cello's upper range, of an aria in Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (this work was the immediate trigger for the first official criticism of Shostakovich, which turned out to be the first of many state crackdowns on artists). After a last fateful banging of the cello concerto themes, the first violin sounds the Dies irae beginning again, turns it into the DSCH theme, out of which is built the fugal elegy that is the fifth movement. — Howard Posner
The Eighth Quartet quotes liberally from Shostakovich’s own music and uses his personal motto theme, suggesting that it is about Shostakovich himself. Shostakovich was quoted in Testimony, a book purporting to be his recollections told to the Russian journalist Solomon Volkov (and published in America after Shostakovich's death), as contradicting his inscription, saying that the quartet is clearly pure autobiography and “you have to be blind and deaf” to think it about fascism; the implication being that it was really about the composer's own struggles against Stalinist totalitarianism, disguised to avoid official retribution.
But there are reasons to doubt this description as well. If the disguise were so transparent as to fool only the blind and deaf, it would scarcely have served its purpose. Testimony has been derided for being more Volkov's version of what he thought Westerners wanted to read than Shostakovich's own words, and demonstrated to be at least partially fraudulent. Moreover, some of the quartet has no apparent autobiographical connection (for example, the dramatic appearance of a “Jewish” theme in the middle movement seems a reference to the Holocaust). The situation is complicated by timing: in 1960 Shostakovich became a Communist Party member and First Secretary of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Composers Union.
Thus while the Eighth Quartet is clearly full of extramusical significance, exactly what it signifies is unclear. It could be an orthodox Soviet artist's personal revulsion against the fruits of fascism; or a disguised dissident protest against the Soviet state, or an outcry against totalitarianism of any kind. All these viewpoints, and a few others, have been advanced by persons of intelligence and good will, and we are unlikely ever to know with any certainty what Shostakovich's real message was, or whether there was a specific message, as opposed to a series of emotional impressions and reactions, at all.
The quartet is in five movements played without pause. Its most important landmark, and primary building block, is a four-note theme built on an abbreviation of the composer's name, DSCH, which becomes D-E-flat-C-B in German nomenclature. Shostakovich had used it as a theme previously, notably in his Tenth Symphony. The quartet begins by introducing this four-note motif fugally. It is followed by a theme (in the first violin and viola) from the introduction of his First Symphony, the work that first brought him to national prominence. The two themes are part of a loose rondo-like structure that also includes a descending theme in the first violin that refers to his Fifth Symphony, the work that restored him to favor in 1937 after official attacks had endangered his career, if not his life.
The elegiac mood of the first movement is shattered by the following Allegro molto, a Blitzkrieg out of which several versions of the DSCH theme, in varying note lengths, emerge. At a climactic moment in mid-movement, the violins wail out a theme from Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio, which was written in 1944. In a less controversial portion of Testimony that may express much of his artistic creed, Shostakovich called this a “Jewish” theme, saying: “Jewish folk music has made a most powerful impression on me… it can appear to be happy while it is tragic. It's almost always laughter through tears. This quality… is close to my ideas of what music should be. There should always be two layers in music. Jews were tormented so long that they learned to hide their despair. They express despair in dance music.”
The third movement is a spooky little waltz-rondo in G minor or major — the violin's melody (the DSCH motif) continually sounds a B-natural (the distinguishing note in a G-major scale) against the B-flat (which distinguishes the G-minor scale) in the viola's accompaniment. This feeling of knowing that there is a key but not knowing what it is, far more unsettling than being in no key at all, is a hallmark of Shostakovich's style. The third section of the rondo goes into duple time and introduces the march-like principal theme of the First Cello Concerto, composed the previous year.
The movement dies away in a recapitulation of its themes, with the cello concerto's five-note motif and three-note martial accompaniment heard last. The first violin, left alone for a few bars, elongates it, at which point the other instruments begin the fourth movement by transforming the three-note accompaniment into an ominous banging that interrupts equally ominous soundings of a new theme. It has been suggested that the banging represents gunfire, and the pianissimo droning of the first violin represents distant aircraft. That droning becomes the first four notes of the Dies irae from the Catholic requiem mass (not coincidentally, these are the DSCH notes in a different order), followed immediately by the lower three instruments sounding a Russian funeral anthem (“Tormented by the weight of bondage, you glorify death with honor”). The banging transformation of the cello concerto theme comes again; then the violins, over droning low Cs in the cello and viola, play a Russian revolutionary song (“Languishing in prison”). This is followed by a melody, in the cello's upper range, of an aria in Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (this work was the immediate trigger for the first official criticism of Shostakovich, which turned out to be the first of many state crackdowns on artists). After a last fateful banging of the cello concerto themes, the first violin sounds the Dies irae beginning again, turns it into the DSCH theme, out of which is built the fugal elegy that is the fifth movement. — Howard Posner
Darol Anger
Street Stuff
Improvised Solos: Caroline Gravil, Tess Nelson, Ashley Powell, Johnathan Francis
"Street Stuff," composed by Darol Anger, is a lively and energetic piece of music with a strong bluegrass influence. This composition features rhythmic chops and shuffle grooves that help maintain the style throughout the song. The swing feel is further accentuated by the use of advanced techniques using slides, ghosted notes, pitch bends, and falls. The bass line in "Street Stuff" provides a solid foundation for the other instruments, ensuring a steady and driving rhythm. Additionally, the composition allows for improvised solos, giving musicians the opportunity to showcase their individual creativity and musical skills.As the piece reaches its climax, the violin soloists showcase their improvisational skills with impressive and fiery licks that is answered by a cello solo. The end climaxes as the orchestra tremolos through a rising crescendo.
Overall, "Street Stuff" by Darol Anger is a dynamic and vibrant piece of music that captures the spirit of bluegrass. Its infectious rhythms, expressive techniques, and opportunities for improvisation make it an exciting and enjoyable piece for both performers and listeners alike.
Overall, "Street Stuff" by Darol Anger is a dynamic and vibrant piece of music that captures the spirit of bluegrass. Its infectious rhythms, expressive techniques, and opportunities for improvisation make it an exciting and enjoyable piece for both performers and listeners alike.
Edvard Grieg
Holberg Suite Op. 40, IV. Air
Edvard Grieg was the most significant Scandinavian composer during the years leading up to the beginning of the twentieth century. He was a prolific composer of songs and music for the piano--small lyric compositions being his obvious forte. In addition to his songs, he wrote a large number of choral works, many for unaccompanied male voices, and some of them remain evergreen favorites. While he did compose in other genres, achieving notable success with his only piano concerto and his string quartet, they were exceptional. He was educated at the Leipzig conservatory, where his early models were Schubert and Schumann, and he spent much time in Copenhagen. Like his fellow Norwegians of that generation, he was oriented to Denmark, the Danish language, and Danish culture in general. Later, in his early twenties, under the influence of the great Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull, he developed an affinity for Norwegian peasant culture. That effected a major change in his musical outlook, and for the rest of his life he plumbed the depths of Norwegian folk music and literature. It became a major part of his musical style and placed him firmly in the ranks of the nationalist composers so characteristic of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Even when not directly quoting folk materials, the harmonies, rhythms, and melodic nuances of that tradition deeply inform his musical style. His milieu was the breathtaking beauty of Norway’s fjords, lakes, mountains, and forests.
With regard to his orchestral music, only his piano concerto, incidental music for Peer Gynt, the Symphonic Dances, the Norwegian Dances and the Holberg Suite have remained durable concert favorites. The Holberg Suite was written in 1884 as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Danish-Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg. Subtitled “Suite in Olden Style,” it is simply a suite of eighteenth-century dances newly-composed by Grieg to evoke the “time of Holberg.” He wrote the suite originally for solo piano, and arranged it for string orchestra the next year.
It opens with an introductory busy, bustling Præludium, followed by a Sarabande. The latter dance is of Spanish origin, a slow and somber dance in three. The Gavotte that follows perfectly illustrates the necessity for the rhythms to exactly support the dancers’ steps. Accordingly, a gavotte is a dance in two beats, wherein the heavy accent on beat two occurs with the dancers’ leap and landing—in this case, Grieg makes it easily heard.
A little musette provides some diversion in the middle of the Gavotte—identified by the allusion to bagpipe drones in the open fifths in the bass. An “air” was often the slow movement in Baroque dance suites (as in the so-called “Air on the G-string” from Bach’s famous second orchestral suite) and Grieg provides an extensive, suitably doleful one, here. The Rigaudon that ends the suite is a bright, bubbling affair, interrupted by a brief lyrical diversion in the middle.
The Holberg Suite, strictly an exercise in eighteenth-century style, nevertheless, ventures into mildly romantic harmony. Grieg wisely and skillfully fused the two styles into what a later generation might have deemed neo-classicism, and created a thoroughly attractive little diversion.
--Wm. E. Runyan
With regard to his orchestral music, only his piano concerto, incidental music for Peer Gynt, the Symphonic Dances, the Norwegian Dances and the Holberg Suite have remained durable concert favorites. The Holberg Suite was written in 1884 as part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Danish-Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg. Subtitled “Suite in Olden Style,” it is simply a suite of eighteenth-century dances newly-composed by Grieg to evoke the “time of Holberg.” He wrote the suite originally for solo piano, and arranged it for string orchestra the next year.
It opens with an introductory busy, bustling Præludium, followed by a Sarabande. The latter dance is of Spanish origin, a slow and somber dance in three. The Gavotte that follows perfectly illustrates the necessity for the rhythms to exactly support the dancers’ steps. Accordingly, a gavotte is a dance in two beats, wherein the heavy accent on beat two occurs with the dancers’ leap and landing—in this case, Grieg makes it easily heard.
A little musette provides some diversion in the middle of the Gavotte—identified by the allusion to bagpipe drones in the open fifths in the bass. An “air” was often the slow movement in Baroque dance suites (as in the so-called “Air on the G-string” from Bach’s famous second orchestral suite) and Grieg provides an extensive, suitably doleful one, here. The Rigaudon that ends the suite is a bright, bubbling affair, interrupted by a brief lyrical diversion in the middle.
The Holberg Suite, strictly an exercise in eighteenth-century style, nevertheless, ventures into mildly romantic harmony. Grieg wisely and skillfully fused the two styles into what a later generation might have deemed neo-classicism, and created a thoroughly attractive little diversion.
--Wm. E. Runyan
Conni Ellisor
Blackberry Winter, I. Mysterioso and III. (Improv.)
Special Guest Soloist: Sarah Kate Morgan, mountain dulcimer
Blackberry Winter, by the American composer, violinist, and educator, Conni Ellisor, was commissioned by the Nashville Chamber Orchestra (NCO). That ensemble recorded the work for Warner Brothers Records in 1997.
The following are the composer’s program notes for Blackberry Farm:
When first asked if I would be interested in writing a concerto for dulcimer and strings, I happily agreed because the challenge of juxtaposing and blending musical styles and idioms has always been of interest to me. In this case the peculiar beauty and eccentricities of the mountain dulcimer, with its diatonic tuning and drone strings, and the rich heritage of the classical concerto with string orchestra seemed particularly compelling.
Because my knowledge of the particulars of the dulcimer was limited at best, it was arranged that I met with master dulcimerist and intended artist, David Schnaufer. On the second or third meeting with David, he played a lovely song called “Blackberry Blossom,” one of many handed down in the Appalachian folk tradition. I could hear immediately how the harmonies underneath could be shifted and changed and that it was a perfect melody to adapt to the “classical” tradition I wanted to bring to the concerto. The title reminded me of a book that had a profound influence on me years earlier, and I asked David if he had heard of Margaret Mead’s autobiography, “Blackberry Winter”. His eyes lit up when he told me that NCO conductor Paul Gambill had called to tell him that the grant was secured on a spring morning a few months earlier, when a late frost had come without warning coating all the new buds with a thin coat of ice - a Blackberry Winter. And so the piece was named.
I felt compelled to work within the folk idiom, utilizing folk and folk-like melodies that are true to the nature and heritage of the dulcimer, yet I wanted the piece to have the basic infrastructure of the classical concerto. So I borrowed from a number of idioms: the Baroque tradition of introducing a theme slowly before moving into an allegro tempo (first movement) a rough interpretation of sonata-allegro form (first and third movements), and the time-tested use of theme and variation (second movement).
—Conni Ellisor
The following are the composer’s program notes for Blackberry Farm:
When first asked if I would be interested in writing a concerto for dulcimer and strings, I happily agreed because the challenge of juxtaposing and blending musical styles and idioms has always been of interest to me. In this case the peculiar beauty and eccentricities of the mountain dulcimer, with its diatonic tuning and drone strings, and the rich heritage of the classical concerto with string orchestra seemed particularly compelling.
Because my knowledge of the particulars of the dulcimer was limited at best, it was arranged that I met with master dulcimerist and intended artist, David Schnaufer. On the second or third meeting with David, he played a lovely song called “Blackberry Blossom,” one of many handed down in the Appalachian folk tradition. I could hear immediately how the harmonies underneath could be shifted and changed and that it was a perfect melody to adapt to the “classical” tradition I wanted to bring to the concerto. The title reminded me of a book that had a profound influence on me years earlier, and I asked David if he had heard of Margaret Mead’s autobiography, “Blackberry Winter”. His eyes lit up when he told me that NCO conductor Paul Gambill had called to tell him that the grant was secured on a spring morning a few months earlier, when a late frost had come without warning coating all the new buds with a thin coat of ice - a Blackberry Winter. And so the piece was named.
I felt compelled to work within the folk idiom, utilizing folk and folk-like melodies that are true to the nature and heritage of the dulcimer, yet I wanted the piece to have the basic infrastructure of the classical concerto. So I borrowed from a number of idioms: the Baroque tradition of introducing a theme slowly before moving into an allegro tempo (first movement) a rough interpretation of sonata-allegro form (first and third movements), and the time-tested use of theme and variation (second movement).
—Conni Ellisor
Featured Mountain Dulcimer Soloist - Sarah Kate Morgan
This proved to be a pivotal moment. At 18 years old, Sarah Kate placed 1st at the 2012 National Mountain Dulcimer Championships in Winfield, Kansas. She’s gone on to build a unique personal style which honors mountain dulcimer giants such as Jean Ritchie while working across genres to build something new. Her dexterous approach to the instrument is one that only masterful artists can bring to the table; much like Bruce Molsky and the fiddle, having been a dedicated student of the dulcimer’s complexities Morgan is able to distill them into a beautifully polished package.
Born of Appalachian soil in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, Sarah Kate Morgan sings, plays, and writes like she’s been in these hills since the dawn of time. She’s had plenty of varied influences, beginning with hearing a classical music CD belonging to her family and going on to discover old time music through a dulcimer built by her grandfather. She began playing dulcimer at age 7.
This proved to be a pivotal moment. At 18 years old, Sarah Kate placed 1st at the 2012 National Mountain Dulcimer Championships in Winfield, Kansas. She’s gone on to build a unique personal style which honors mountain dulcimer giants such as Jean Ritchie while working across genres to build something new. Her dexterous approach to the instrument is one that only masterful artists can bring to the table; much like Bruce Molsky and the fiddle, having been a dedicated student of the dulcimer’s complexities Morgan is able to distill them into a beautifully polished package.
Well-known and widely respected as one of the leading experts of the mountain dulcimer, Sarah Kate is also a first-rate singer and songwriter. Her earthy and poetic lyrics embrace the highs and lows of southern Appalachian life while her voice does the same – moving between alto and soprano parts with ease. Her crystal-clear but rootsy vocal style combines the best of country, old time, bluegrass, and gospel influences who, like Morgan, foreground their cultural roots. All of this goes hand in hand to create a musical experience akin to a sonic baptism.
None of this is lost on the giants of roots music. Sarah Kate has performed and/or recorded with artists like Tyler Childers, Alice Gerrard, and Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones. In addition to her musical prowess, Sarah Kate is an accomplished scholar who graduated from Morehead State University with degrees in Traditional Music, Appalachian Studies, and Arts Administration.
Currently based in Hindman, Kentucky, she practices, cultivates, teaches, and preserves Appalachian folk traditions in her role as the Hindman Settlement School’s Traditional Arts Education Director. Whether calling square dances, playing the mountain dulcimer, or making music and creating art with Appalachian youth, Sarah Kate Morgan’s work centers on a lived belief that art and tradition are living, breathing tools that foster hope, build community, and create change.
Acknowledgements
Supportive parents and care-givers of our students
Lafayette Orchestra Association
Lafayette Orchestra Association
Administrative Staff
Administrative Staff
Demetrus Liggins, Superintendent
Katherine Lowther, Director of Fine Arts
Dr. Anthony Orr, Principal
Stephanie McDermott, Associate Principal
Dr. Caryn Huber, Associate Principal
Dr. Caroline Morales, Associate Principal
Dustin Fore, Associate Principal
Brittany Harris, Assistant Principal
Lafayette Performing Arts Faculty
Robert Dee Bishop, Director of Bands
Dr. Chris Strange, Associate Director of Bands, Jazz Band
Aaron Jones, Associate Director of Bands, Jazz Band, Percussion
Ryan Marsh, Director of Choirs
Laura Howard, SCAPA Vocal Instructor, Director
Joseph Wrightson, Vocal Instructor, Director
Amanda Wells, SCAPA Vocal Instructor
Cathy Calhoun, Piano Instructor
Phil Kent, Director of Orchestras
Aaron Breeck, Associate Director of Orchestras
Amie Kisling, Director of Theatre Arts
Alberta Labrillazo, SCAPA Director of Theatre
Cassady Gorrell, Associate Director of Theatre Arts
Demetrus Liggins, Superintendent
Katherine Lowther, Director of Fine Arts
Dr. Anthony Orr, Principal
Stephanie McDermott, Associate Principal
Dr. Caryn Huber, Associate Principal
Dr. Caroline Morales, Associate Principal
Dustin Fore, Associate Principal
Brittany Harris, Assistant Principal
Lafayette Performing Arts Faculty
Robert Dee Bishop, Director of Bands
Dr. Chris Strange, Associate Director of Bands, Jazz Band
Aaron Jones, Associate Director of Bands, Jazz Band, Percussion
Ryan Marsh, Director of Choirs
Laura Howard, SCAPA Vocal Instructor, Director
Joseph Wrightson, Vocal Instructor, Director
Amanda Wells, SCAPA Vocal Instructor
Cathy Calhoun, Piano Instructor
Phil Kent, Director of Orchestras
Aaron Breeck, Associate Director of Orchestras
Amie Kisling, Director of Theatre Arts
Alberta Labrillazo, SCAPA Director of Theatre
Cassady Gorrell, Associate Director of Theatre Arts
Directors
Phil Kent a native of Scottsville, Kentucky and a graduate from Allen County-Scottsville High School. He is a graduate of Western Kentucky University receiving a Bachelors degree in Instrumental Music Education, K-12. He has earned a Masters in Music Education with a string emphasis from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois. He studied both trombone with Dale Warren and violin with Stanislov Antoniovich, then upon completion of his degree began studying cello with Dr. Yoonie Choi.
Mr. Kent is currently in his nineteenth year of teaching as an orchestra director. He is in his twelfth year as the director of orchestras at Lafayette High School, the School for the Performing and Creative Arts, and Clays Mill Elementary in Lexington, KY. Previously, he taught in the Montgomery County School System in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
Mr. Kent served as the KMEA District 8 Orchestra Chair, the Kentucky Music Educators Association State Orchestra Chair, and KMEA Credentials and Elections Chair. He has also served as an adjudicator for KMEA Large Ensemble Assessments and KMEA Solo and Ensemble Assessments. Mr. Kent has also been invited to conduct the Jefferson County Regional Middle School Symphonic Orchestra, Campbellsville University Honors Orchestra, and the KMEA Third District Honors Orchestra.
He has performed with various professional and community ensembles such as the Woodford County Community Theater, the Distilled Theater Group, the Bluegrass Area Jazz Ambassadors, the Metronomes Big Band and the Yellow Dog New Orleans Jazz Band. Mr. Kent is a member of the Kentucky Music Educators Association, the Music Educators National Conference, Phi Mu Alpha, and the American String Teachers Association.
Mr. Kent is currently in his nineteenth year of teaching as an orchestra director. He is in his twelfth year as the director of orchestras at Lafayette High School, the School for the Performing and Creative Arts, and Clays Mill Elementary in Lexington, KY. Previously, he taught in the Montgomery County School System in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
Mr. Kent served as the KMEA District 8 Orchestra Chair, the Kentucky Music Educators Association State Orchestra Chair, and KMEA Credentials and Elections Chair. He has also served as an adjudicator for KMEA Large Ensemble Assessments and KMEA Solo and Ensemble Assessments. Mr. Kent has also been invited to conduct the Jefferson County Regional Middle School Symphonic Orchestra, Campbellsville University Honors Orchestra, and the KMEA Third District Honors Orchestra.
He has performed with various professional and community ensembles such as the Woodford County Community Theater, the Distilled Theater Group, the Bluegrass Area Jazz Ambassadors, the Metronomes Big Band and the Yellow Dog New Orleans Jazz Band. Mr. Kent is a member of the Kentucky Music Educators Association, the Music Educators National Conference, Phi Mu Alpha, and the American String Teachers Association.
Aaron Breeck began studying violin at age 9. A transplant the bluegrass state from Norfolk, VA, Mr. Breeck received his Bachelors of Music in music education from the University of Kentucky (UK) and his Masters of music from Vandercook College of Music. He was a charter member of the UK String Project and studied under master teachers Maria Baldwin, Kathryn Drydyk, and Sue Lucas. While at UK he studied violin with Daniel Mason and Margaret Karp.
Mr. Breeck is now in his 19th year teaching orchestra. For 14 years Mr. Breeck was an orchestra director in Montgomery County Public Schools. In 2010 he became the Director of Orchestras at Montgomery County High School. At that post he also conducted the Musical Pit Orchestra for the Robert Haynes Spring Musical held annually. Under Mr. Breeck’s direction the orchestras at Montgomery County High School have received distinguished ratings at KMEA Large Ensemble Assessment every year and earned “Gold Level” in the KMEA Program of Excellence 2012-2019. Mr. Breeck took up the post as associate orchestra director at Lafayette High School, the School for the Performing and Creative Arts and as director of orchestra at Wellington Elementary School in 2019.
Mr. Breeck is an active member of the orchestra community throughout the state of Kentucky. He has been a guest conductor for the Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) District Orchestra Music Festival and Fayette County Middle School Honors Orchestra. He adjudicates orchestras for Large Ensemble Festivals as well as KMEA Solo & Ensemble Festivals throughout Kentucky. Mr. Breeck has served as the KMEA Orchestra Division Chair for District 8 and is the current KMEA State Orchestra Chair. In the summer of 2013 Mr. Breeck was invited to Yale University to participate in the Yale Symposium on Music Education where he received the Yale School of Music Distinguished Music Educator Award. Mr. Breeck was a co-presenter with colleague Ashley Tyree at the 2015 National School Board Association Conference representing the music department for Montgomery County Public Schools. In 2018 Mr. Breeck was selected as the KMEA District 8 High School Music Teacher of the Year.
In his free time he enjoys spending time with his wife Lauren and their daughter Sophie.
Mr. Breeck is now in his 19th year teaching orchestra. For 14 years Mr. Breeck was an orchestra director in Montgomery County Public Schools. In 2010 he became the Director of Orchestras at Montgomery County High School. At that post he also conducted the Musical Pit Orchestra for the Robert Haynes Spring Musical held annually. Under Mr. Breeck’s direction the orchestras at Montgomery County High School have received distinguished ratings at KMEA Large Ensemble Assessment every year and earned “Gold Level” in the KMEA Program of Excellence 2012-2019. Mr. Breeck took up the post as associate orchestra director at Lafayette High School, the School for the Performing and Creative Arts and as director of orchestra at Wellington Elementary School in 2019.
Mr. Breeck is an active member of the orchestra community throughout the state of Kentucky. He has been a guest conductor for the Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) District Orchestra Music Festival and Fayette County Middle School Honors Orchestra. He adjudicates orchestras for Large Ensemble Festivals as well as KMEA Solo & Ensemble Festivals throughout Kentucky. Mr. Breeck has served as the KMEA Orchestra Division Chair for District 8 and is the current KMEA State Orchestra Chair. In the summer of 2013 Mr. Breeck was invited to Yale University to participate in the Yale Symposium on Music Education where he received the Yale School of Music Distinguished Music Educator Award. Mr. Breeck was a co-presenter with colleague Ashley Tyree at the 2015 National School Board Association Conference representing the music department for Montgomery County Public Schools. In 2018 Mr. Breeck was selected as the KMEA District 8 High School Music Teacher of the Year.
In his free time he enjoys spending time with his wife Lauren and their daughter Sophie.
Superintendent Letter
Director of Fine Arts Letter
Lafayette Orchestra Recordings
Our Vision
The mission of the Lafayette High School Orchestra is to develop in each student an appreciation of our inherit musical culture, to teach techniques of musical expression, to discover and develop the talents of students in all styles of music, to develop knowledge and skills in listening, reading, and performing at a high artistic level.
Community, friendships, and outreach are three words that represent our vision for the program. Students in the Lafayette Orchestra program have a rich tradition of musical excellence and pride through performing from the heart. We seek to share our talents and passions with the community. We share our musical gifts with the young and the young at heart through programs like our "Giving Bach" outreach to students with special needs as well as through our mentorship program for future orchestra members. We love to perform, not only on stage, but off stage too!
Our orchestra provides a variety of essential elements in our students' lives. Participation in such a large group involves not just musical talent, but discipline, maturity, social skills, and personal responsibility. Weaving these elements together requires regular attendance, a high level of participation, and quality individual preparation. The overall group’s success relies each individual's ability to attain these elements. If everyone does their part, the experience will definitely be rewarding!
Community, friendships, and outreach are three words that represent our vision for the program. Students in the Lafayette Orchestra program have a rich tradition of musical excellence and pride through performing from the heart. We seek to share our talents and passions with the community. We share our musical gifts with the young and the young at heart through programs like our "Giving Bach" outreach to students with special needs as well as through our mentorship program for future orchestra members. We love to perform, not only on stage, but off stage too!
Our orchestra provides a variety of essential elements in our students' lives. Participation in such a large group involves not just musical talent, but discipline, maturity, social skills, and personal responsibility. Weaving these elements together requires regular attendance, a high level of participation, and quality individual preparation. The overall group’s success relies each individual's ability to attain these elements. If everyone does their part, the experience will definitely be rewarding!