More than 250 student musicians with their string instruments poised to play stretched from one end of the North Gym to the other at Walt Whitman High School for the 3rd Annual Night of a Thousand Strings. The evening consisted of orchestras from Maplewood, Birchwood, Silas Wood, Stimson and Walt Whitman. Each had the opportunity to play a couple of songs in their individual ensembles before joining together as one melodious group for the grand finale.

The evening is 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. Whitman music teacher Mr. Frank Yolango helped establish this special evening of string music three years ago. “I did this as a young music student when I was in school. And I thought what a cool thing it would be to do here in South Huntington to show the smaller kids how it works. And then they see how the whole system works up to the high school so they want to stay with it and we keep the numbers in our program. And the parents see that there is also a good progression in our music classes through the years,” explained Mr. Yolango.

Ms. Sarah Weiss conducted our youngest orchestra to start the evening. The Birchwood and Maplewood combined orchestras of 5th graders played First Scale March and Bohemian Folk Song. The Silas Wood Orchestra, directed by Ms. Margaret Silvera, went classical with our 6th grade musicians performing Bach Musette. The 8th graders of the Stimson Middle School Orchestra performed next.  Directed by Mrs. Sharon Smith, their piece, Joust, was meant to evoke images of a medieval jousting tournament and slowly built up its excitement and energy.  The Walt Whitman High School Orchestra, with Mr. Frank Yolango conducting, took a very avant garde turn to wrap up the individual orchestra performances.  They presented Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space (accompanied by Stimson Strings) and Curse of the Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space, fun and humorous nods to the B monster movies of the 1950s. Both pieces featured live blood-curdling scream sound effects that took the audience by surprise.  The finale returned to the classics with our musicians of every grade playing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy all together. 

It was obvious that a lot of hard work and rehearsals went into the evening’s performances. We thank our talented musicians and their teachers for bringing us this night of beautiful music!

Under the direction of Ms. Sarah Weiss, Birchwood and Maplewood orchestra students started the evening’s program on a high note.

Stimson’s 8th grade musicians played a tune before joining the high school orchestra.

Silas’ sixth-graders returned for the 3rd annual event with some musical experience under their belts.

The Walt Whitman High School Orchestra, with the addition of Stimson’s 8th grade musicians, took a very avant garde turn to wrap up the individual orchestra performances.