The Marywood Music Education department in cooperation with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), a program among the world’s largest in arts education, is hosting a String Celebration Concert on Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m.

This concert is the culmination of a weekend of activities taking place on campus for middle and high school student string players. Approximately 150 students from across the region were nominated and selected to take part in this weekend of activities.

Students will take part in a series of workshops directed by two guest conductors, Stephen Benham, associate professor of music education at Duquesne University; and Jennifer Sacher Wiley, associate professor of music at Susquehanna University.

Each conductor selects the repertoire they would like to work on during this weekend and sends the music to the students before the event happens. The students are then able to become familiar with the works prior to the event and really work to clean them during the workshops.

According to Sophie Till, associate professor of violin and viola at Marywood, the purpose of this program is to “gather these string players from across the region, bring them to campus and give them this new experience that they can’t get in their own schools.” She is administering this event with the help of students in the Music Education department.

Till said the team of student educators help run the event completely. “They’re fantastic,” she said. “They do the furniture, they chaperone the students around, make sure everyone is registered; they really do a lot of the legwork. And some of them play, too.”

Heather Kani is one such student. Kani is a senior Music Education major focusing her instrumental studies in violin. She said she is excited to be working on this event again.

“There are not many string projects in the area, and it’s great to be given this opportunity to work hand-in-hand with them.”

The event is open to the public and admission is free.

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