During PASE, the DHS music room is abuzz with activity. Students who’ve grown up in the orchestra together sit in circles on the carpet, chittering away with the familiarity of close friends. Others gather to tune their violas in a corner. Through the stage door, a violinist practices a piece in the empty auditorium. As the final note fades away, Dartmouth Public Schools orchestra director Heather Church breaks into applause.
“Desmond,” she says, “that was stunning.”
The DHS Orchestra is, ultimately, a community, and they’re aiming to translate that sense of connection into their March 31 concert “I’ve Got Your Back” at the Zeiterion.
The sold-out show, which features both the Dartmouth Middle and Dartmouth High ensembles, marks the fourth time the orchestra has performed at the theater. They kicked off the partnership in 2016 with “Out of This World,” a concert consisting of pieces from fantasy and sci-fi film scores. In 2017 and 2022, the orchestra played a rock Christmas show with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. When deciding this year’s theme, Church received wide-ranging suggestions from her veteran students.
“It felt like everybody had a different idea of what they wanted,” Church said. “Some kids wanted classical, movie, international, Broadway, all this different stuff. I couldn’t decide. And I thought, with all that’s going on in the world right now and recognizing that everybody is interested in doing different things, let’s just do it all. Let’s try to put it all together. Then that turned into the basic themes that everybody wanted, and trying to find music within those themes that could also represent community, diversity, and having each other’s backs.”
The finalized setlist is filled with homages to the unique history and people that define the South Coast. For example, there is an original composition written for Nikoles “Big Nik” Joseph, who lost his life in a car crash last June—mere weeks after graduating from DHS.
“Nik will always be remembered for his radiant smile and his genuinely kind soul,” superintendent Dr. June-Saba Maguire and DHS principal Ryan Shea wrote in a joint statement after Joseph’s passing. “His legacy of putting others first, along with his natural ability to make everyone feel included, will continue to inspire our school community.”
Over the summer, Church was approached by the Sing Me a Story Foundation, a Tennessee-based organization that commissions pieces for people or families in need. The compositions aren’t “just a piece of music,” the organization’s website says. “It’s an opportunity to build empathy, creativity, and community.”
After conferring with the orchestra’s officers, Church decided the tribute should go to Joseph. Sing Me a Story recruited Wheaton College composition student Kyle Ducharme to write the piece, which he will conduct at the concert. The performance will include narration and reflections on Joseph written by his siblings.
Ducharme is just one of the many local guest collaborators featured in the concert. In honor of International Women’s Month, Cape Cod-based harpist Katie Lynch Koglin will join the orchestra on a piece celebrating women in music. UMass Dartmouth music and theater professor Jing Wang will play the erhu on a Chinese folk song, as will DHS junior Miley Yu. The erhu is a traditional Chinese instrument.
The inclusion of the erhu is one of the ways Church’s musical selections highlight the personalities, interests, and talents of the orchestra’s members. Church found Robert Kerr’s “Ode to the Plains and Wild Horses Running” while looking for “a piece that could celebrate our country without being necessarily patriotic, like stars and stripes,” she explained. The piece was inspired by the work of Albert Bierstadt, a Prussian painter who immigrated to the US and grew up in New Bedford. Along with its local ties, Church selected “Ode to the Plains” for the orchestra’s co-vice president Siena Parsons, an avid equestrian. During the performance, a Birerstadt-esque digital painting by co-vice president Sadie Gifford will be projected behind the musicians.
To emphasize the connection between the music and the city, Church brought the orchestra on a field trip to the New Bedford Public Library, where they viewed some of Bierstadt’s original paintings. The orchestra also visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum, spurred by the inclusion of Thomas Jenkins’ “Whales” in the setlist. Before the orchestra launches into “Whales,” New Bedford Poet Laureate Sarah Jane Ferreira will take the stage to recite her poem Transform. “It’s about climate change and its impact on the oceans, whales, and sea life in general,” Church explained.
For a concert so inspired by Downtown New Bedford, it’s fitting that it will be brought to life in the newly renovated Zeiterion, which reopened just over two months ago. “What a gift to have that hall in New Bedford,” Church reflected. “It’s like the heart and soul of the city, and we’re so lucky to have it right here.”
Orchestra co-president Juliana Carrico is excited to return to the Z. She was a freshman the last time the orchestra played at the theater in 2022. “I honestly think it was one of our best performances,” she said. “People in my family still talk about it to this day because it was such a great experience.”
“We always put work into what we do, but when it comes to performing at the Z we really take it seriously,” she continued, referring to her and her fellow musicians. “We put so much effort into it, and you can tell that it pays off, because everything comes together.”
Co-vice president Siena Parsons, meanwhile, appreciates the exposure the Z provides for the orchestra. “I think it’s really cool when we perform at the Z because it gets the name of the Dartmouth Orchestra out there,” she said. “It’s not one of the performances at the high school, where the only people coming kind of already know [the orchestra] exists.”
Church echoed her thoughts. “I want to show our community how important it is that we exist,” she said. “Most schools do not have orchestras. A lot of them have bands, but even those are dwindling, and that’s really scary. I want everybody to be there to see how important this is and to see how amazing these kids are.”
