The PAC was host to a district-wide orchestra concert on March 20. This was no ordinary orchestra concert, however. Mark Wood, an electric violinist, led orchestra members from nine grades in what he calls an “orchestra rock concert.”

Wood, a Grammy-winning musician, was an original member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and has played with music greats such as Celine Dion, Lenny Kravitz, and Kanye West. He founded Electrify Your Strings (EYS) ten years ago in order to help struggling school orchestras. The program “fires up students, teachers, and local communities by injecting a high voltage dose of energy and much-needed funding into a school’s music education program,” according to http://electrifyyourstrings.com.

The students performed classic rock’n’roll songs from the Beatles, Ozzy Osbourne, and Led Zeppelin. Instead of sitting down as the orchestras normally do, the players stood and swayed with the intensity of the songs. Wood hopes to make students open to “the adventures of music,” he said on his website.

Both performances featured District 95 students from all levels of orchestra. For the LZHS students, Concert Orchestra played at the first show and Symphony Orchestra played at the second. The three levels of orchestra all played separate songs, allowing them to showcase their talent, but at the end all three orchestras played a final song together.

Part of the proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit all three of the district’s orchestra programs.