South Huntington School District was thrilled to host its First Annual Night of 1,000 Strings at Walt Whitman High School this March. The evening consisted of orchestras from Maplewood, Birchwood, Silas Wood, Stimson and Walt Whitman. Each had the opportunity to play a number of songs as their original ensembles before joining together as one group for the grand finale.

The evening was both a way of showcasing our wonderful Music and Arts program while giving our young students the chance to see how far they can go by continuing to keep music in their lives.

“We are very proud of our string program,” shared Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Joe Centamore. “We were concerned that Covid might have a negative impact on the string program, so we met with our orchestra teachers, directors, and brainstormed.” The Night of 1,000 Strings is an event that has appeared in other districts and there was no better time than now to bring it to South Huntington.

This string-specific concert highlights the program as it was a great opportunity for each school to play a few songs before all joining together as a whole district orchestra. It was big, so large in fact that the only venue to house all of our musicians and their proud families was Walt Whitman’s North Gym. It was the perfect space to accommodate our talented musicians while giving the audience a memorable evening that they surely won’t forget.

Our youngest orchestras performed first to start the evening, anticipating the playing of our high school’s orchestra groups. “We want to show students, parents and our community that this is a program that every level builds upon and we want to show the younger kids what they have to look forward to,” Dr. Centamore added.

Whitman’s high school string players serve as role models and mentors for our young musicians, and it was a great chance to get them excited about what the future has in store for them. And we look forward to hosting this wonderful celebration of music for years to come!

Photo Gallery

Recording of the Night of 1,000 Strings

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The South Huntington District Orchestras in its entirety, performing "America The Beautiful," to complete this wonderful first time event.