SOUNDS OF STRING

"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." -- Billy Joel     
    
     While my favorite music to listen to is country music -- the modern stuff, not the oldies -- I still enjoy breaking away from that and hearing different forms of music -- pop/rock, jazz, rap and even orchestra music.
     This past weekend I got the chance to take in some great sounds by a very talented Shawano Community High School orchestra band as they hosted the annual Golden Strings concert at the high school on Friday and Saturday evenings.
     The Golden Strings concert is the first concert of the school year for the high school's orchestra and Shawano's orchestra -- in my opinion -- is one of the best I've ever heard. The different sounds each instrument makes is just awesome and the students are very talented at what they do, you can tell that they've been working at it for a number of years. Actually, students can join orchestra in sixth-grade in Shawano.
     The theme for this year was "music from around the world" and began with the different national anthems for each country and then went into some popular music from around the globe. It's amazing how different the sounds are in different parts of the world.
     I also enjoy covering the event because of the different view points I can take while photographing the concert -- from the floor with the audience, from the stage and behind the scenes. The concert also allows me to be a little more creative than other assignments I usually get. You have all the shapes of the instruments, the shadows they cast with the stage lighting, student's reactions as they play and the crowd reactions too.
     This time I wanted to try shooting it and editing in black and white. Here are the results.