Young musicians take stage at Riverview elementary concert
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From Ludwig van Beethoven to Jack White, Riverview School District’s younger musicians covered a couple of centuries’ worth of the world songbook to wrap up the performance year for members of an enthusiastic audience.
The May 12 Elementary Band and Orchestra Spring Concert featured first-year and advanced elementary orchestra students, along with Bright Beginners and Developing Band musicians, performing a variety of well-know songs in their third joint performance of the year.
“I’m very proud of all of the students who are performing in our concert,” longtime orchestra director Jason Libell said. “Many of our advanced instrumental students, through their own determination and passion for music, have continued learning how to play their instruments through a once-in-a century pandemic. I am also very grateful for the families, community and administration in our district for supporting music in our schools.”
The concert kicked off with the 49 first-year orchestra students from Verner and 10th Street elementary schools, the latter hosting the event, playing familiar-to-their-ears tunes such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “London Bridge Is Falling Down” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” The third- through sixth-graders added a touch of Classical with the theme of “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor.
The full elementary orchestra followed with selections culminating in “Seven Nation Army,” the 2002 hit composed by White for his band the White Stripes, which had the audience clapping along loudly with the beat. The full orchestra also contains the advanced orchestra, which features an additonal 29 students in fourth through sixth grades who have been playing between one and four years.
Next came the elementary band, 32 students who played a repertoire including “When the Saints Go Marching In,” reprises of “Old MacDonald” and “Ode to Joy,” and a trio of crowd-pleasers called “Power Rock,” “Hard Rock Blues” and “Let’s Rock.”
The band is led by by Kip Johnston, who came to Riverview in 2020 after 36 years in Butler Area School District, along with Joe Perrino. Johnston leads the band after school, while Perrino woks with the students during the day on items such as assembling their instruments and making sure they are prepared for practice.
Because of the covid-related disruption in the 2020-21 school year, it was difficult for the band to start and maintain students. Johnston credits her returning students for beginning rehearsals in September and preparing music for the younger musicians.
“I am proud of the leadership that the older students have shown the beginning musicians,” she said. “Band rehearsal is where they put the lesson skills to work and learn to play cohesively to fit their part into the musical puzzle. It is best part of my job when I see their face light up when it comes together successfully and they feel the joy of making a pleasing musical performance. It is the total team effort of staff, parents and students that make live music and the proud tradition of the Riverview Band possible.”
In addition to leading the elementary band, Johnston conducts private lessons at Western Pennsylvania Center for the Arts in Verona.