Saturday morning, we and about 50 other families from throughout the area gathered at the Hanover community center for String Fling, a twice-a-year event that introduces beginning string students to the string orchestra setting.
For the preceding week or two, the students had each practiced their part of the music on their own: first violin, second violin, viola, and cello. Then, on Saturday, students who had previously only played alone (or with a few other students) were brought together in one room for about four hours. With a conductor. And lots of food.
The conductor asked them all to play an open D note. All 50 bows went at the same time. Beautiful. Then, at his signal, he asked them to begin playing the first piece. All of a sudden, the part (second violin) we had been going over for a week-and-a-half became one strand of several that coalesced into the familiar “Skater’s Waltz“. It wasn’t perfect, but it was gorgeous.
Grongar 