WPCNR PARENT ABOUT TOWN. March 10, 2005: The White Plains High School Symphony Orchestra and Eighth Grade Orchestra, and the WPHS Symphonic Band presented their Mid-Winter Concert Thursday evening and held an audience of 400 spellbound with their artistry, sensitivity and complexity of presentation. 

William Eckfield, the ebullient Director of the WPHS Symphony Orchestra and Eighth Grade Orchestra collaboration charmed the audience first with his impeccable high school and Eighth Grade combination which played the McPherson's Lament evoking with sensitivity strings those ancient moors. Photo by WPCNR StageCam.

What impresses this reporter is that the combination of the two orchestras (Eight Grade and High School)  only had one reheasal and that was Tuesday. The cooperation and cohesion between the two groups is a tribute to Mr. Eckfield's way with children and the pride and professionalism of the children themselves. They sound more interesting than a professional orchestra. They never play tired. They always play sensitive. They attack the music and take it apart and deliver it.

Ecfield picks not easy pieces either. The 1812 Overture showed the audience that with splendid, seamless transitions from section to section, and my admiration for the young lady on the bells. The cellos and basses lay a beautiful bed complimenting the sensitive strings. Eckfield has a  way of making selections showcase every section of the orchestras. We have heard eighth graders enjoy and look forward to playing with the High School orchestra in these concerts as a right of passage continuing the musical tradition at White Plains High school, rated in the Top Ten High Schools for Music in the country.

Eckfield returned to the podium after a brief intermission with his White Plains High School Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart's Oveture to The Abduction, Fascinating Rhythm and then delivered the piece de resistance, Phantom of The Opera Selections. Photo by WPCNR StageCam

The orchestra displayed the professionalism of every section, every player. The violins were delicate and forefront when they had to be; the horns supportive on the Mozart classic, flourishing romantically on Gershwin's Fasinating Rhythm (that really is not one of the great arrangments), then really doing star turns on The Phantom of the Opera. (It's not easy being brass in an orchestra, but they do not override the string artistes). This Phantom was forceful, this Phantom was delicate on segues into Music of the Night, holding you spellbound. I loved the very pressure packed flute solos in this.  The WPHS Symphonic Orchestra gave this most florid of pieces a class and refinement that made it beautiful.

Mr. Eckfield from what we are told is well-liked by his very serious young muscians. You can hear it.

STAND UP AND BOW! BRAVO! The White Plains High School Symphonic Band getting two minutes of applause. Photo by WPCNR StageCam.

After intermission, the curtain swept back (so glad to see a stage in White Plains use a curtain!) on the White Plains High School Symphonic Band under the direction of the effervescent Lesley Tompkins. The best band in all the land delivered a bouncy ingratiating toe-tapping version of Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusic by Adam Gorb, then showed all their bench on The March from 1941 by John Williams. The swells of the march themes, the boom of the brass, the joy of the clarinets and the thunder of the percussion (WPHS lays down persussion support that just lifts you to heights when they're playing behind you), made this reporter hanker for his old trombone and Pleasantville High School Military Band uniform again. WPHS closed with Ride by Samuel R. Hazo.

These groups have such a great sound, ladies and gentlemen, and these concerts simply get better, the musicians better, the entertainment better every time I hear them. These organizations play as a team and take their sound and their presentation seriously. You can hear it.

The White Plains High School Mixed Emsemble and White Plains High School Choir will perform March 22 in their portion of the concert, due to their inability to perform Thursday evening. A compact disk recording was made of Thursday's concert and will include the choir portion.