The Herricks High School Chamber Orchestra and the Senior Pops Orchestra of Long Island delighted the audience that filled the theater at the Herricks Community Center for the groups’ joint performance there on Sunday afternoon.
The Senior Pops players opened with a program that included a medley from “Hello Dolly,” a lively rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” Barry Custer’s “Somewhere in Time,” and Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are.”
For Senior Pops pianist Joan Coester, who taught music in the Herricks School District for 28 years before retiring, the concert venue was familiar turf.
“This is like old times. This was really coming home to the community. This is where we used to do all our big concerts,” Coester said.
Coester retired in 1991, and has been playing with the Senior Pops for the last decade.
“I enjoy playing. You don’t have time for that when you’re teaching, so it’s a nice thing to do,” she said, adding that it playing with the Herricks students was a particularly gratifying experience.
“They’re so well-prepared. It just enhanced our group,” she said.
Under the baton of their conductor, Robin Maddox, the Herricks ensemble rendered a sublime version of Richard Meyer’s “Of Glorious Plumage” to open the second half of the concert.
Then the two group’s combined to perform a medley from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera,” Evard Grieg’s “March from Sigurd Jorsalfar” and concluded with a portion of Jean Sibelius’s “Karelia Suite”.
The two group’s performed smoothly together, belying the fact that they had only one two-hour rehearsal together on the Wednesday prior to their performance.
Senior Pops music director Stephen Michael Smith, who conducted the conjoined ensembles, praised the Herricks students’ musicianship.
“These kids are extremely talented. It’s nice for them because they get to play with the whole orchestra,” he said.
Smith said that the interaction between the young players and their older counterparts was a mutually beneficial collaboration.
“The cross-generational thing is pretty interesting. My players are more experienced so they can pass that on to the kids,” he said, noting that the seniors’ intuition for phrasing was an aspect that the Herricks players picked up on.
“The kids are so good technically, they push the seniors,” he added.
Herricks cellist Ravina Jain said she enjoyed the experience of performing in a larger ensemble.
“It was different because I’d actually never played in a full orchestra. It was really good,” she said.
Herricks violist Lisa Famularo said she appreciated the opportunity to play with the seasoned musicians, many of whom are former music teachers.
“I liked how the two difference generations interacted. It was interesting to see what playing over the years had done for them,” she said.
The enthusiastic response the players received from the audience, also composed of disparate generations, indicated that the performance had done something for them as well.
