Black Violin offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to local students

The Cedar Shoals High School and Clarke Central High School orchestras recently came together to become the Clarke County Orchestra to perform with the nationally recognized duo Black Violin.

“Black Violin has been trying to use school kids from where they perform, I think they are doing it to inspire students to look at music differently,” said Dr. Eunice Kang, the orchestra teacher at Central.

Dr. Kang has been one of the driving forces in the program, but she does not have to work alone. Cedar Shoals orchestra teacher, Mrs. Rebecca Floyd has been the other leader involved.

The performance happened on March 7, 2019 before a sold-out Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall at the University of Georgia.

“Once I heard that the place was sold out I lost all my confidence,” said violinist Lindsey Pack, a senior from Cedar.

“At first I was nervous, but once I got on stage and saw all the lights and stuff, I couldn’t see the crowd,” said violinist Anaiah Aziabor, sophomore from Central.

Despite all the nerves, the crowd thought the performance was great. Some people in the crowd were dancing and clapping along.

“I thought that the performance was great. The lights the music were all phenomenal,” said Amanda Jones, a Cedar parent.

The Clarke County combined orchestra performed two pieces, both chosen by Black Violin. The first piece was “Simple Gifts” performed by the orchestra alone and “Shaker” that was performed by the orchestra and Black Violin.

“In my opinion, the music was not very hard, it was how fast we had to play to keep up with the track that was the hard part,” said Anaiah.

At the end of the performance, Black Violin told the crowd what they wanted people to get from their story.

“We want to encourage people to look at not only music but anything you do in a different way than what is normal,” said Wil B. “We are all dreamers, so let’s do more of what we dream.”