Greta Sandburg
To commemorate the 250th birthday of the United States of America, the Highlands Community Orchestra will honor the impact that immigrants have made on this country with the music that they brought with them from their homeland and the music that has been created by them here in the USA.
Our April 19 concert will kick off the celebration with the music right here in our mountains. Who brought their music with them and where did they come from? We will devote most of this concert on the predominantly Scotts-Irish music of the immigrants in this area. To help us with our celebration, the Highlands Community Orchestra will have two guests and one group of students joining the orchestra – Josh Blount, associate pastor at the Living Faith Church in Franklin, Alice Shumate, singer and songwriter in Highland County, and a group of students from the Highland Studio of the Allegheny Mountain String Project.
Josh Blount will join the orchestra playing the small pipes, which are a smaller version of bagpipes as the name suggests. What an opportunity to get a real bagpiper to play with us in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Inspired by the beauty of Highland County, Alice Shumate composed and record-ed her wonderful tune, “Highland,” in 1991.
I decided to have this tune orchestrated for us to perform. Our very own Alex Hummel, of the French Horn section in the orchestra, did the orchestration of this piece. There is no music written down for “Highland,” so Alex listened to this piece in the background of a Highland County Chamber of Commerce video about the beauties of Highland County on the Chamber’s website and transcribed the music from listening to the video. We are honored to have Alice perform with us.
Our last group of guest musicians, who will appear will be members of the Highland Studio of the Allegheny Mountain String Project, under the direction of Kelley Mikkelson. Six students will join us for our salute to the Scottish immigrants of the area.
The music “of the people and for the people,” continues with our young musicians learning the joy of playing and performing with others, something that has been a mainstay of American culture as we pass on traditions through our music.
Join us at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19, in the Highland Center in Monterey, Virginia, as we kick off the nations 250th anniversary with music.
