LCPS All-County Orchestras to Perform Saturday at Heritage High School

The Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) All-County Orchestras is scheduled to take place at Heritage High School this Saturday. The annual event is an opportunity for the best string, brass and percussion players in Loudoun County to come together to create an “All-Star Orchestra”. 

Heritage High School Band and Orchestra Director George Herrmann said Friday that every middle and high school in Loudoun County will be represented. There will be at least 160 performers. Each participating student was chosen through auditioning, Herrmann said, and the top scoring students were selected for the ensemble.

“The groups are an opportunity to showcase the best performers in the county,” Herrmann said, as well as an opportunity for the students to perform with an ensemble of a superb caliber that doesn't always exist in the schools.

“The most exciting part for me as a teacher is to see the excitement on the kids’ faces when they put a piece of music together in one day and hear how good it sounds,” Herrmann said. “The most exciting part for me as a musician is watching performers that have never played together learning very rapidly how to sound like one ensemble, and then perform their music like they have rehearsed for months.”

Herrmann will host Saturday’s event, which will include two guest conductors.

A. Scott Wood, a music director of the Amadeus Orchestra, The Arlington Philharmonic, The Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Conservatory Orchestra will lead the high school orchestra. He currently leads the National Cathedral School and Saint Albans School Orchestra and has guest-conducted many of the region’s youth orchestras.

Mark A. Taylor, the 2009 Virginia American String Teachers Association Outstanding Teacher of the Year, will lead the middle school orchestra. He currently teaches at Stone Middle School and London Towne Elementary School in Centreville and has guest-conducted a number of student orchestras in the area, Many of his compositions have also been nationally published.  

“This event is worth checking out because it will be a great example of everything that is right with the youth of today,” Herrmann said. “Despite the rumors, stories that people read in newspapers, and the occasional misguided youthful indiscretion, there are great children in Loudoun County that are hard-working, talented and driven to succeed. Saturday's concert will be an opportunity for the community to hear some of the best things going on with the youth in Loudoun.”

The All-County Orchestras is scheduled to take place at Heritage High School on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 3:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.