ASO Youth Orchestra a big hit

Last weekend the ASO Youth Orchestra appeared at Woodlands Auditorium presented by the Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild.
The guild annual meeting preceded the concert. All proposed initiatives passed by consensus.
Outgoing board members John Clooney, Bette Graves, Martin Hanna, Karen Lauck, David Major, JoAnn Major and Kaye Stafford were recognized for there service.
New scholarship winners Jonathan Van Houten, Megan Graves and Kassie Johnson were honored. Johnson demonstrated her ease with the keyboard prior to the ASO concert. Also honored were scholarship renewals for Jakeb Coy, Dustin Nicholsen, Amy Lefler and Joel Coleman.
Two orchestra groups played, the Academy Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra. The Academy is primarily middle school aged students. They did a fine job on Teleman's Overture in C Major, Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, Allegro and Delibes' March and Procession of Bacchus from the Sylvia Ballet. They were a pleasant surprise. Very mature and adept.
The ASO Youth Orchestra is primarily made up of high school age children. The group played two numbers en masse and two numbers in ensembles.
First up were the percussion and horn sections with one of my all time favorites Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man. A string quartet followed with more Copeland in Simple Gifts. The highlight of the afternoon was the full orchestra flawlessly playing Mozart's Overture to the Marriage of Figaro. The finale, Holst's The Planets, Mars was ambitious.
The afternoon was delightful especially with the thunder counterpoint provided by Mother Nature.