Sequim Community Orchestra cooking up concert, bake sale

By Sequim Gazette Staff • February 8, 2023 1:30 am
Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen Members of Sequim Community Orchestra, with youth from their strings program, play holiday favorites at the Home Town Holidays event in Sequim in 2021.
Sequim Gazette file photo by Emily Matthiessen Members of Sequim Community Orchestra, with youth from their strings program, play holiday favorites at the Home Town Holidays event in Sequim in 2021.

Now in their 11th season, members of the Sequim Community Orchestra (SCO) present their 2023 family concert — featuring special guests and the Sequim Community Youth Orchestra – along with a bake sale, at 2p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave.

“We’re all so glad to be able to perform in front of a live audience once again,” music director Phil Morgan-Ellis said. “Live music is a wonderful experience for the audience, but it also adds so much to our experience as musicians. The audience is always a part of the performance.”

As always, there is no charge to attend the concerts of the SCO, though donations are gratefully accepted, orchestra members said.

The concert’s matinee program is a mix of modern tunes and very recognizable classical pieces, orchestra members said.

The ensemble will perform Beethoven’s Fifth as the finale to this famous symphony, Morgan-Ellis said, and will also play Mozart’s “Musical Joke,” which answers the question, “What would Mozart sound like if he tried to write poorly?”

Also on the program is the “Rainbow Connection,” written by Paul Williams for Mr. Kermit The Frog, as well as the theme to HBO’s series “Game of Thrones,” written by Ramin Djawadi.

Students from the Sequim Community Youth Orchestra have a new instructor for this year, Sara Baldwin. She will direct them as they perform mid-concert.

“This is a concert performed by musicians of all ages, for an audience of all ages,” Morgan-Ellis said.

Though the orchestra’s public performances and group rehearsals were curtailed or cancelled in 2020 and 2021, SCO saw groups working on quartets (socially distanced and masked) and the students had online lessons available.

In 2022, with the reopening of social events, the orchestra came back together as a full ensemble.

“We were able to keep our programs moving forward, and with grant funding from the Clallam EDC and ARTSWA, we were also able to stay fiscally healthy,” SCO board president Justin Knobel said.”This season is one for celebrating being back together.”

Members of the SCO ensemble as well as parents and students of the youth youth orchestra, will have home-baked treats for sale after the performance, to help raise money to purchase quarter- and half-sized instruments for use by the youngest students. (The SCO has, since its inception, maintained a selection of loaner instruments that are borrowed at no cost to families.)

For more information about the Sequim Community Orchestra or Sequim Community Youth Orchestra, visit sequimcommunityorchestra.org or contact Knobel at president@sequimcommunityorchestra.org.