The Centre Strings orchestra will present its winter concert at the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts on Tuesday, December 16.
The strings ensemble will perform at 7:00 p.m. in the Centre’s recital hall, with works to works by Wolfgang Mozart, Astor Piazzolla, Leroy Anderson, Soon Hee Newbold, Arcangelo Corelli, Georg Frideric Handel, David Giardiniere, and Jose Feliciano. The evening includes special guest percussionist Josh Roberts, a teacher at Newnan High School. Admission is free.
Centre Strings is Coweta County’s only community-student string ensemble and the orchestra has been sponsored this year by Newnan’s Cargill.
The orchestra is led by Dr. Lyn Schenbeck, who will also conduct the December 16th performance. Schenbeck is Coweta County’s 2013 Teacher of the Year, and has taught music on every level for over 40 years, including conducting orchestras and choirs all over the United States and Eastern Europe. Currently, Schenbeck is the Director of the Arts at the Central Educational Center, a Charter College and Career Academy, where she teaches five classes and directs Internships in the Arts.
“We are so excited by Cargill’s sponsorship this year,” said Schenbeck. “It has enabled us to buy music and repair equipment for our musicians. Our program is about bringing together an entire community with music, and Cargill has helped us do that.”
“Our commitment to the arts in our community is important to us, and what Centre Strings is doing is amazing,” said Cargill Manager Brad Down. “Centre Strings brings together a wide range of people in our community – from children to grandparents, very diverse, very talented – and it brings people from across our community into the Central Educational Center and to the Centre to perform and develop a love of music. That, to me, is something special.”
The student/community string orchestra does not have formal auditions. Anyone who has been playing the violin, viola, cello, or upright bass for at least two years is welcome to join rehearsals, which are held each Tuesday evening in Schenbeck’s classroom at CEC.
Since the group’s founding in 2004 it has grown from an original 8 members to over 40, with members ranging “ages 8 to 80,” said Schenbeck. The ensemble holds a number of concerts throughout the year, performed at the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts, senior centers and local churches.
“We have a community filled with amazingly qualified and talented people, and Dr. Schenbeck has a way of bringing them together in an amazing way,” said Down. “We think it is important to support her in that, and support these phenomenal people to share their talent with an even greater range.”
For more information on the December 16 concert or Centre Strings, please call the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts on Lower Fayetteville Road in Newnan at (770) 254-2787 or Dr. Schenbeck at (678) 423-2000, ext. 230.
Contact: Dean Jackson
Office of Public Information, Coweta County School System
