Plano West Senior High School - Music

Music

The Plano West Chamber Orchestra has been named the outstanding string orchestra for the state of Texas by the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) 5 consecutive times. Directed by Mrs. Jo Wallace-Abbie, the orchestra is made up of approximately 40 musicians. TMEA rules prohibit a school from entering the competition the year after it has won, so the title of Texas "Honor Orchestra" was won in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010. The orchestra has been featured on the Disney Channel series "Totally in Tune" which aired in 2001. In 2005, the orchestra won a Cappie Award for Outstanding Pit Orchestra in a musical, (for the school production of) Les Misérables.

The Plano West Mighty Wolf Band has a marching and concert season and also has a winterguard program. In the 2009–2010 school year, the band had approximately 95 members; by 2012-2013, this had increased to about 140. The band's 2009 Marching show was "Rising Dragons" by Robert W. Smith; in 2010-2011 it was "The Natural" (based on the movie of the same name), in 2011-2012 it was "Global Illuminations," and in 2012-2013 it was "Postcards from Texas."

In 2011, The Plano West Music Program was named 'Gold' GRAMMY® Signature School. Plano West was one of only seven "Gold" level award recipients. The award recognizes top U.S. public high schools making an outstanding commitment to music education.

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Famous quotes containing the word music:

    Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
    And by that music let us all embrace,
    For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
    A second time do such a courtesy.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    I cannot say what poetry is; I know that our sufferings and our concentrated joy, our states of plunging far and dark and turning to come back to the world—so that the moment of intense turning seems still and universal—all are here, in a music like the music of our time, like the hero and like the anonymous forgotten; and there is an exchange here in which our lives are met, and created.
    Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)

    Yes; as the music changes,
    Like a prismatic glass,
    It takes the light and ranges
    Through all the moods that pass;
    Alfred Noyes (1880–1958)