ABOUT THE SINGING STRINGS

The Singing Strings, under the direction of John and Jenet Clement, is now in its 32nd year. It is based in Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, which has a population of 139,000. The orchestra was originally part of a school group-taught music program. In 1999 the program became independent of the public school education authority, and the Singing Strings now gives individual instruction in a conservatory system to students from 7 to 17 years of age. Each student also plays in one of the three orchestras according to their level, regardless of age.

 

In 1978 the P.E.I. Lieutenant Governor asked that students from the String program play a musical background for his New Year’s Levee at Government House. The event was a great success and the Singing String Orchestra became well established in the musical life of the community. (This year the orchestra performed at Government House for the New Year’s Levee where the first performance occurred 30 years ago.)

 

In such a small Province, where there were few trained string players, the students had more opportunity to develop their performance skills than they would have had in a larger center. As a result the Singing Strings became very active in the community, and performed for Brownie teas, Pancake Breakfasts, Senior Citizens' Parties; for their Royal Highnesses Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Prince Edward (twice), Prince Andrew and Lady Sarah Ferguson; for Pierre Elliott Trudeau and every Prime Minister since, three successive Governor Generals, Lieutenant Governors, American State Governors, and a multitude of celebrities (such as Roger Moore – the Saint), who have chanced to pass through our friendly Province.

 

The Singing Strings have twice represented Canada at the World Congress of the International Society for Music Education: first in Eugene, Oregon, USA (1984) and then in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1996). In 2008 the Singing Strings represented Eastern Canada at the 10th International Festival of European Youth Orchestras in Florence, Italy.

In 1996, returning from a 17 day European tour, the Singing Strings met Mela Tenebaum for the first time and shared a concert with her at the Indian River Festival, and it has since become a regular event blending current and alumni Singing Strings members with Mela Tenenbaum and friends. In 2005 the main feature of the concert was Vivaldi’s Four Seasons which was very well received by large appreciative audiences. In 2006 the focus was on Mozart, with his Sinpfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and orchestra, and the ever popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusic. This concert was also a great success, and in 2007 we gave another alumni concert in the Indian River Festival. 

Also, in the summer of 2007, we discovered another William Harris church that has his characteristic acoustics, and earlier in the summer we gave a concert there with Mela & Friends plus our Alumni players and some of the younger students who are currently in the Singing Strings program. We used different repertoire and played to a large appreciative audience.   

2008 
CANADIAN EAST COAST REPRESENTATIVES
 AT THE 10th. EUROPEAN YOUTH ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL, FLORENCE, ITALY

Our two weeks in Italy were tremendously successful. The orchestra was very well received and the performance level exceeded anything we had done before. This was remarkable considering that we spent many hours walking between the various historic buildings, churches and museums, often at times of the day when the shops closed and the Italian population took a siesta! .   

We had excellent support from our community, and we thank all of the donors who made this amazing experience possible.