Stockton Symphony Holiday Pops Show Features Mark O’Connor & Local Strings Students

It was a Stockton Symphony Holiday Pops concert unlike no other this weekend at Delta College’s Atherton Auditorium.  This year’s concert featured the Mark O’Connor Band bringing elements of Mark’s Appalachian Christmas show to add some fiddling spice to this traditional holiday favorite area event, sponsored by and Ignite the Arts Grant from the Blackwing Foundation.  Conducted by Symphony Director Peter Jaffe, with the Stockton Symphony and Stockton Chorale playing and singing several opening numbers , were joined for several numbers by Mark and his wide Maggie O’Connor and was followed by a set drawn from the Appalachian Christmas show featuring the full Mark O’Connor Band backed by the symphony.

The highlight of the show for us here at the foundation was the participation of approximately 20 area strings students, selected from among several hundred in the area who have been receiving instruction using The O’Connor Method developed by Mark O’Connor.  The show included high school and middle school students from Lincoln Unified School Districts orchestra program directed by Shane Kalbach as well as students from Lodi based Sayla Music Academy.   The opportunity to perform with a full professional orchestra and musicians of O’Connor’s renown in front of a packed house at a performing arts theater doesn’t come along often so it was great giving the students a chance to do this.

Ignite the Arts Grants from the Blackwing Foundation have been instrumental in providing O’Connor Method instruction books to students and to providing teacher training workshops held in collaboration with the University of the Pacific Conservatory’s Music Education program.  area have been funded by Blackwing Foundation to bring Mark’s New American School of String Playing methodology to the region.  If you are an area strings instructor looking to adopt O’Connor method into your school orchestra curriculum the Blackwing Foundation is here to help through our Ignite the Arts Grants program.

Of course audience participation in a Holiday Pops and the sold out crowd of 1500 participated in a Christmas Carol Medley sing along to help close out the show.