Last night we were treated to an AWSOME concert, put on by the 7th and 8th grade orchestra students in Peoria Public Schools and Mark Wood, lead violinist of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and a HUGE supporter of music education. It was a great concert, and Dallin had a fantastic day. They played several Beatles tunes, including Eleanor Rigby and All Together Now, as well as a few of Mark Wood's origianl compositions. Also, Mark Wood played a few solo numbers, showing off his amazing ability on the electric violin. I believe the one he was playing was a 7 string electric violin. Dallin spent the whole day in workshop, the last half of the school day being instructed by Mark Wood. He is not only a performer, but a compser as well. He has received Emmys for some of his works, including music for coverage of the Tour deFrance and the Olympics. He also has invented several electric violins. He had one of these instruments, the Viper, at the concert, and students were able to take turns performing with it (Dallin said he didn't want to play it in front of everyone at the concert). He travels the country from Sept- June putting on these workshops at schools around the country, invigorating the string programs in schools. Here's a few pictures from the evening, as well as some websites to check out, if you're interested. The pictures are not fantasic. Our camera is only mediocre, and, well, it was a concert...
Dallin before the concert started.
Mark Wood and the PSD150 orchestra students in action. You can see Dallin to the left.
That's Dallin's friend, Matt, playing the Viper.
After the concert, Mark Wood signed autographs for the kids. I failed to get a picture of Dallin with him, but I did get this one of his friend Matt with him.I'm hoping Dallin will post more about the experience on his blog, because he really did enjoy himself the whole day.
Here's a few websites. The first is Mark Wood's website. Scroll about 3/4 of the way down and check out the YouTube video called "The Mark Wood Experience". It has some footage of him working with school kids, plus you can experience some of his amazing playing. The second is a Pepsi commercial that he is featured in. I found it on YouTube as well.
http://www.markwoodmusic.com/html/news.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4X8jGNK4-U
Way to go, Peoria Public Schools for providing such a great experience for our kids!!!
4 comments:
What a fun experience that must have been. I'm not too sure how keen I'd be on the electric violin--especially with the distortion (it seems a little like a guitar on your shoulder). Perhaps I'm just too old fashioned, or I just need to hear it in person! :-) Way to go, Dallin!
It did sound a lot like an electric guitar, but it was played with a bow, which gives it a different sound at times, and there's just something cool to me about a string player being so versatile. Going beyond classical, or even fiddling. I like that it opens up new avenues of music for a musician.
You made some good points. In the videos it's difficult to detect the different sound that it makes at times with the bow on the strings rather than fingers/picks. Again, I'd have to hear it in person, but doubt that will happen for a very long time.
It was pretty cool. I just started orchestra again, and The first day was so awesome, because there were only two sixth graders there (including me) And Dallin, his friend and a few other eigth graders. The taught us some of the songs, and we had an AWESOME time!! Way to go Dallin!!
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