Monthly Highlights

McCallum's Fine Arts Academy Orchestra, The Hardest Working Student Orchestra in Texas, is in rehearsal for another major performance at the Long Center's Dell Hall on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 8 P.M. The 50-piece orchestra will perform Schubert's Mass No. 2 in G Major with the McCallum Choir. Both groups will perform the Mass this June in New York City's famed Carnegie Hall. The Long Center concert will also include pieces from each group that they are performing for upcoming University Interscholastic League contests.

The concert will benefit the orchestra's scholarship fund to help students finance the trip and performance in New York City. "We thought it would be wonderful to present the Carnegie program to an Austin audience before we left for New York," said, Marlene Meador, president of the McCallum Orchestra Boosters. This is the second Long Center appearance for the orchestra, who performed an 18th century Italian music program last November with the Neapolitan Music Society. "We are the first and only high school program to perform at the Long Center," according to Ricky Pringle, Director of Orchestras at the Fine Arts Academy. "We've been very busy this year presenting concerts at the Long Center, the Paramount Theatre and for the Downtown Alliance Christmas Tree Lighting, all on top of our regular season," he added. The orchestra played to a packed house at the Paramount Theatre with The Eggmen last month, where they raised  $18,000 in scholarship funds.

This is also an encore Carnegie Hall performance for the McCallum Orchestra. Pringle explains, "We played Carnegie three years ago and as a result of that performance, we were invited with our choir to perform in the MasterWorks Series." The MasterWorks Series invites qualified ensembles to collaborate on a major work for choir, professional orchestra and soloists under the direction of a nationally recognized conductor. Dr. André J. Thomas, Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music Education at Florida State University, will conduct the McCallum students at Carnegie.

The concert is sponsored by KMFA 89.5, Classically Austin; Blackerby Violin Shop; and the Long Center.

"We hope the Austin community will come out and support these orchestra and choir students who perform "live music" all the time and who will represent Austin in New York City this summer," said Meador. "They  have worked so hard this year and they deserve Austin's  support."

Tickets for the benefit concert go on sale Thursday, March 12, 2009 and can be purchased at the Long Center's 3M Box Office, by phone at 512.474.LONG or online at thelongcenter.org. Tickets are $22, $17 and $15 with student ID. (Service Fees may apply.)