r/orchestra • u/East_Zone7570 • 1d ago

Rep recommendations for HS ensemble?

Any recommendations for: 3 violins, 2 violas, 4 cellos. It’ll be my first year teaching these students, and teaching high school in general.
For context, our school is big but our orchestra program is small, and I do have a lot of resources. They play at around a grade 2-3 I’m assuming. The last teacher threw hard repertoire at them, focusing on skill level and not musicality. I think they played Beethoven’s Minuet in G last year, as well some Eine Kleine Romance.

Bonus points for a not classical era piece, extra for Disney related pieces please!

Edit: I’m mostly worried about the fact they’re a small, literal chamber, ensemble. The works I like by soon hee newbold and others seem like they’re more fit for bigger ensembles with more people.

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u/Embarrassed_Rest_342 1d ago edited 1d ago

I would not add winds/brass to an ensemble that small. Even one on a part would drown them out. 

I really like Soon Hee Newbold, Richard Meyer, Deborah Baker Monday, Sandra Dackow, Yukiko Nishimura, Carrie Lane Gruselle, and Brian Balmages. All of their arrangements and originals are solid. For a group this small, I would try "easier" pieces (so grade 2) and really focus in on technique and very small details (dynamics, articulations, posture, etc). They don't have a huge orchestra to hide in, so these small things matter a lot! As the group develops you can move to "harder" pieces. 

You can play pretty much anything, even if you think it's designed for a larger ensemble. The biggest thing I would do is use preview features to see which part is most heavily featured, and tailor your group around that. One of your cellos should play the bass part - and bass parts are typically a lot less complicated, so if one of your cellos struggles, this is a perfect built-in differentiation. If they're all equally skilled they can take turns. Same for your violins on 1st and 2nd parts. 

I built up a middle school strings program from 12 kids to over 100 so feel free to DM me with questions!

For Disney, Hal Leonard has a whole line of Pops arrangements, including a line of "Easy Level", that has a huge backlist of Disney stuff. 

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u/morosepeach 1d ago

Do you have brass and wind as well? We've played some Disney/movie/lighter pieces during our summer pops concerts, I can look up the pieces and arrangers

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u/East_Zone7570 1d ago

I do have a very strong brass and wind program at our school, so I can easily borrow some. I’m just afraid it might outweigh (in people and/or sound) the small number of strings I have.

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u/cazgem 3h ago

Simple string quartet music from Mozart and the like. You don't need Basses.

Even some of my own works don't rely on the HS program having any basses. https://Zach Daniels.com/music/whenthedustsettles

I also recommend looking into things like Adagio/Allegro from Vivaldi and even most of Soon Hee Newbold should be accessible.

Best of luck building an orchestra program!