West Shore orchestras played in their final concerts of the year recently in the school auditorium. This was the first time in several years that the concerts were held on campus. Previously, they had been held at Eau Gallie High and Satellite High. Another change was that the lower three orchestras played on a different night than the upper two, April 10 and 11 respectively.

Orchestra director Maureen Fallon explained why the changes were made.

“We could not [reserve] Eau Gallie … we couldn’t work out any of the dates with Eau Gallie … the only date they had was the date after Spring Break, and nobody wants to do a concert then,” Fallon said. “Plus we can’t fit all of our orchestra students and their parents at one concert in the auditorium, so that’s why we had to split it up.”

But Fallon was not enthusiastic about the changes.

“The parents liked it,” she said. “I didn’t like it because I like the parents to hear from the bottom [level] to the top, so they can hear how [students progress].”

Despite the changes, orchestra students were still confident in their playing. Junior Andrew Leonard plays in Chamber Orchestra.

“Having two separate concerts worked out well, and allowed the many busy students in orchestra … flexibility,” Leonard said. “It would be  good [again] next year. The orchestra played very well at the concert. We all did our parts and worked hard to prepare the selections.”

By Clark Evans