Basic Recording Library
2009 Rock Springs Itinerary
David Littrell, University Distinguished Professor of Music at Kansas State University, founded the Gold Orchestra in 1989. The orchestra began with ten students in grades 3-6 with fifteen other students participating in the Silver Orchestra, a training group for learning orchestral routines and note-reading skills.
The Gold Orchestra performed for the Kansas Chapter of the American String Teachers Association in September 1991. After the concert, string teachers from all over Kansas expressed their enthusiasm about the quality of the ensemble, which gave Dr. Littrell the idea to audition for the prestigious Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic. The ensemble grew to forty-two members that year and included students through 8th grade. The Gold Orchestra performed at Mid-West in Chicago in December 1992, where an audience of over 800 gave them a standing ovation. Many nationally known music educators were in the audience and lavished praise on the students.
The Gold Orchestra, which now numbers nearly 70 students in grades 5-12, goes on an annual retreat in October to the Rock Springs 4-H Center for rehearsal and relaxation. This is perhaps the most important event of the fall because of the concentrated hard work that takes place and because the orchestra coalesces in spirit, in friendship and in musical growth. Orchestra members take annual tours of area public and parochial schools and toured England in June 1997, where they participated in the Rotary International Music Festival at Colchester. The orchestra toured Seattle and British Columbia in June 1999 and performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2001 and 2006. They performed at the American String Teachers National Orchestra Festival in Dallas in March 2004. In 2008 they were in residence at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado.
