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Established in 2002, The Council Rock South Orchestra has already performed for over 60 festival, school, neighborhood and overseas concerts.Two of our highlights were performance tours of Scotland and Italy. The CRSO traveled to Italy in 2007 and performed 4 concerts in Rome, Siena, and Padova and performed with the Orchestre Giovanile del Veneto as part of the Gala Concert in the 17th Annual International Music Meeting. In May 2003, conductor Christopher Simon led his orchestra on a tour of
Scotland with his colleague Rick Bogle and the Council Rock High School North Symphony Orchestra, performing in notable halls in Elgin and Edinburgh.
Last year, the CRSO was honored to perform in a "Side-By-Side rehearsal" with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center. The combined group was lead by Rossen Milanov and played Light Cavalry Overture, Nimrod from Enigma Variations, and Russian Easter Overture. In 2007, the CRSO performed in another "Side-By-Side" concert with the Delaware Valley Philharmonic Orchestra when they performed the opera overture La Gazza Ladra.
The orchestra’s success in Scotland led to performances at the new United States Constitution Center and at various adjudication festivals where they have consistently earned superior ratings. Since 2004, members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Trenton Symphony, Ocean City Pops, and Temple University faculty have given master sectionals four or five times each year in an effort to raise the level of play to new heights. In April 2005, the orchestra traveled to Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to work with members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Comments by BSO’s members echoed the praises by numerous other professional musicians that Council Rock High School South is unique in its ability to draw so much talent from only one school. Later that month, the Orchestra hosted the premier of the Council Rock HS South Orchestra Festival. The unique festival featured six high school full orchestras from Eastern Pennsylvania that were adjudicated by a panel of three professional orchestra conductors. Due to its success, Council Rock South hosts the festival every year and will hold the 6th annual festival on May 7, 2010.
The orchestra is divided into four classes that meet on alternate days. The group meets all together after-school twelve times during the year and also rehearses in after-school sections six times. The students have been helped tremendously by a talented music faculty in the elementary and middle schools and owe much of their success to them.
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