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Time:

Wednesday
December, 15, 2021
05:30 PM - 06:30 PM

Location:

W 183

Category

High School String Orchestra

Conductor

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Bill Bitter

Program

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Performer Details

Performer Bio Synopsis

Highland High School opened in the fall of 1993, and the orchestra program currently enrolls over 300 students. Orchestra course offerings at Highland include the Symphony, Sinfonia, Chamber, and Concert Orchestras, as well as the Starlight Serenade, a 70 member strolling strings ensemble. The Starlight Serenade has served as musical ambassadors for the Highland High School Orchestras for twenty-eight years, beginning with just six members in 1993. The Symphonic Strings perform exclusively string orchestra literature during the fall semester, and expand in the spring semester to a full symphony orchestra. The Highland Symphony has achieved “Superior” (Div. I) ratings in every festival and competition they have entered over the past twenty-eight years. In December of 2002, the Highland Symphonic Strings became the first orchestra from an Arizona high school to perform in the world-renowned Carnegie Hall in New York City. The Highland Symphonic Strings have also appeared three times (1997, 2007, 2013) at the prestigious Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL, and their fourth performance at Midwest is scheduled for December, 2021.

Highland High School Symphonic Strings

Conductor's Bio

Bill Bitter is in his forty-first year with Gilbert Public Schools, Gilbert, AZ. During that time, he has taught orchestra and band at all levels, elementary through high school. He is presently the Director of Orchestras at Highland High School. Highland High School opened in 1993, and the Highland Orchestras currently consist of five performing ensembles, with an enrollment of over 300 students. Mr. Bitter has served as an adjudicator and clinician for festivals throughout the United States. His orchestras have performed at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, and in New York’s world-renowned Carnegie Hall. In 2014, the Arizona Music Educators Association named Mr. Bitter the Arizona Music Educator of the Year, and in 2015, he received the Elizabeth A. H. Green School Educator Award from the American String Teachers Association.

Additional Directors

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Amy Bennett

Additional Conductor Image

Ryan Smith

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