On Sunday afternoon, two performance groups will musically bridge the generations as the Herricks High School Chamber Orchestra and the Senior Pops Orchestra of Long Island will present a concert program at the Herricks Community Center in what could become a community tradition.
Each group will perform a selection of pieces separately, and will play two pieces together in their first joint appearance.
It’s not the first time the senior pops group has done a concert like this, according to Mark Flanzrich, president of the senior group’s board and its principal oboist. They’ve performed with the Huntington High School orchestra in an annual spring concert for the past decade.
Flanzrich thought it would be a nice idea to initiate a similar program with Herricks in the fall.
“We would like to make a relationship with this community. I thought it would be a good match,” Flanzrich said. “We hope it will be a tradition.”
Flanzrich’s oldest daughter, Alyssa Lakes, was in the music program at Herricks.
Most of the senior pops players are over 50 with some musicians in their 80s and 90s, according to Flanzrich, who said he thinks they can provide an example of the value in continuing to play music to their younger counterparts in the Herricks ensemble.
“It gives you meaning, purpose and direction,” Flanzrich said. “It’s very important for a younger people to see their parents active and involved, that life continues and that people are engaged.”
Robyn Maddox, who directs the Herricks Chamber Orchestra, also feels it’s a good experience for her music students to see the senior pops players, who are from all walks of life, still pursuing their musical avocations at their advanced ages.
“I think it’s be very exciting for the students to intermingle with the different generations of musicians. Their passion for music is something they can take all through their lives,” she said. “They’re sharing their love of music with an older generation. And that the love of music transcends the generations.”
For the two pieces the groups will be performing in tandem, each student will be sitting next to a senior musician from the amateur adult group.
The 60 members of the senior pops will open the Sunday concert with “Hello Dolly,” Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are,” and “Kiss Me Kate.”
The Herricks orchestra will then perform Richard Meyer’s “Of Glorious Plumage.”
The two groups will jointly perform the theme from “Phantom of the Opera, Edvard Grieg’s “Triumphal March” and a piece by Jon Sibelius.
“It’s a very extensive program, very ambitious,” Flanzrich said.
The concert program is slated for 3 p.m. on Nov. 6. There will be a suggested donation of $5 for all those attending it.
