Teaching Elementary Orchestra : programs

For winter and spring concerts at my schools, we have a combined orchestra, band, and choir concert that ideally lasts about an hour. The orchestra portion tends to run about 25 minutes total, so a few pieces performed by the first-year orchestra, a few pieces by the second-year orchestra, and then one or two combined pieces rounds out the orchestra portion. I meet with my students once a week for 30 minutes during recess for full orchestra and 30 minutes once a week during the school day for small group learning, so these pieces are representative of what students can comfortably have concert-ready.

Here is what my students performed last year at these concerts:

Winter Concert

Beginners:

Bile 'em Cabbage Down (students plucked an open string harmony part while I played the melody on the violin)
Slavonic Folk Song (pizz. open string harmony, then pizz. melody, then arco melody/harmony together)
Serenata by Dale Brubaker (all open strings, arco)

2nd Year Students:

Skaters' Waltz by Émile Waldteufel, arr. Richard Meyer (in preparation for the next month's district-wide String Fest)

Sword Dance by Thoinot Arbeau, arr. Bob Phillips

Combined Orchestras:

Blueberry Jam by Bonnie Greene (in preparation for the next month's district-wide String Fest)

Jingle Bells by James Pierpont (my arrangement)

Spring Concert

Beginners:

Ode to Joy (my arrangement)
It's the Blues Man! (from their Orchestra Expressions book, complete with student soloists improvising the rhythms during their 4-measure solo)
Student compositions (one four-measure composition per instrument)
Royal Promenade by Don Brubaker (their first "real" full orchestra piece with independent parts)

2nd Year Students:

Spring by Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Richard Meyer
Student compositions (two eight-measure compositions--one for upper strings and one for lower strings)
Fiddles on Fire by Mark Williams

Combined Orchestras:

The Lion Sleeps Tonight (arr. Bob Cerulli)

This general format has been working well--in December, I like to start with something that's pizzicato open strings to show where the beginners started at the beginning of the year (and because students would be really comfortable performing that) and work up to something that's arco with D string notes. And the 2nd year students tend to play fewer pieces (about two big pieces alone) because theirs are longer in length. If we do only one combined piece at the end, 2nd year students may play three pieces alone; if we do two combined pieces, 2nd year students generally play two pieces alone.

Here are some of the pieces my students have performed for past winter and spring concerts listed in no particular order (student compositions are on every concert too):

Winter Concert

Beginners:

Pizzicato open strings (one piece)

Les Toreadors (from Orchestra Expressions)
Three Point Shot (from Orchestra Expressions)
Bile 'em Cabbage Down (from Orchestra Expressions supplement)

Pizzicato open strings/pizzicato D string notes/arco open string harmony plus D string melody (one piece played three times)...Or play one of these pieces pizzicato only (open string harmony/D string notes melody/choose melody or harmony third time) and play a second piece with the melody arco only

Arco open strings (one piece)

Serenata by Dale Brubaker (a winter concert tradition!)

Second Year Students:
A round or something pretty simple (one or two pieces--some years I don't do one of these on the concerts and choose two full orchestra pieces instead)

Hallelujah by William Boyce (easy round in D Major)
Do, Re, Mi, Fa (easy round in D Major)
Brudenell Waltz by David R. Bellwood (transposed to D Major with some extra lines added)

Full orchestra piece (one or two pieces--often one will be performed for String Fest the following month and the other one will not)

I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, arr. Michael Story

Skaters' Waltz by Émile Waldteufel, arr. Richard Meyer

Sword Dance by Thoinot Arbeau, arr. Bob Phillips

Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi (my arrangement that I got permission from the copyright holder to write--sorry, can't share)

Appalachian Hymn by Soon Hee Newbold

Hey Fiddle Fiddle! by Brian Balmages

Les Toreadors by Georges Bizet (my arrangement)

Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II (my arrangement)

Ukrainian Bell Carol by Mykola Leontovich, arr. Sandra Dackow

Combined Pieces:
We always end with Jingle Bells! If we do a second combined piece on this concert, it would be a String Fest piece

Star of the County Down (melody for 2nd year students; harmony for beginners)
Variations on a Sea Shanty (my arrangement)
Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi (my arrangement that I got permission from the copyright holder to write--sorry, can't share)
Jingle Bells (my arrangement)

Spring Concert

Beginners:
Very simple full orchestra piece or a piece from the book

New World Symphony Theme by Antonín Dvořák, arr. Michael Allen
Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven (my arrangement)
Twinkle Twinkle by W.A. Mozart (my arrangement)
A Traveler's Song (from Orchestra Expressions--played Andante, then Allegro)

Piece from book with student soloists improvising their own rhythms (they play a 4-measure solo, deciding which quarter notes to change to pairs of eighth notes). We play a total of four times--first and last times with everyone playing the melody, the second and third times with soloists to include 6 soloists total.

It's the Blues Man! (from Orchestra Expressions)

"Real" full orchestra piece

Medieval Kings by Soon Hee Newbold
St. Lawrence Overture by Elliot Del Borgo
First Scale March by Mark Williams
Royal Promenade by Don Brubaker

Second Year Orchestra:
Two or three full orchestra pieces, possibly one brought back from January's String Fest

Dragon Dance by Michael Story
Slavonic Dance No. 1 by Antonín Dvořák, arr. Michael Story
Jupiter by Gustav Holst (my arrangement)
Anasazi by John Edmondson
Fiddles on Fire by Mark Williams
Honor and Glory by Soon Hee Newbold
Celtica by Brian Balmages (when I have an advanced violinist who can handle the solo part)
Rite at Stonehenge by Elliot Del Borgo

Or something a little different

The Blue Balloon from The Blue Book of Violin Tunes by Bonnie Greene (learned by ear)

Combined Orchestras:

The 101 by Katie O'Hara LaBrie
The Lion Sleeps Tonight by George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and Solomon Linda, arr. Bob Cerulli
Rhythm 'n' Blues by Soon Hee Newbold
Spring by Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Richard Meyer
Sailors' Song by Mark Williams
Slavonic Dance by Antonín Dvořák, arr. Richard Meyer
William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini (my arrangement)
We Will Rock You by Brian May, arr. Paul Lavender

Concert info to share with families (Google Docs):

Please see this post for a Google Sheet of repertoire options organized by unit/concert.

For a more in-depth look at my winter concerts including logistics and sample speaking parts, please see this post :)

Which pieces do you like to program for a beginning orchestra concert? Which pieces should I consider for future concerts?

spring concert program beginning orchestra

Band, orchestra, choir concert program template for Word

I enjoy making the programs for each of my schools' concerts throughout the year. I get the program information from the band and choir teachers and then add the students' names and concert pieces to the program template. I like to change font combinations each year, keeping the program to two fonts--one for headings and one for everything else. Text boxes help me easily move groups of names around the page.

Students decorate concert flyers a few weeks before the concert and hang them around the school and community. If a student shows me their completed flyer, I'll scan a copy for myself so I can include some student artwork in the concert program too. I use Paint to select the portion of the artwork I want to use and then copy/paste it into the Word document. I've seen some really impressive student artwork. Using clip art is another possibility to add interest to all the text of a concert program, but I really like the personalized touch of using student artwork.

In addition to a place to list all the pieces on the concert by ensemble, the concert program template includes a place for student names for band, orchestra, and choir as well as a "special thanks" area. This template makes a program that's one piece of paper folded in half.