Dowell Middle School Hosts Winter Wonderland Concert

200 Student Musicians Participate

Tender young eyes attached to eager young musicians shone bright with concentration as they darted back and forth from the music perched in front of them to the conductor rhythmically moving her arms.

Fingers plucked strings and guided bows. Lungs gulped air and pushed it out again. Cymbals crashed and drums thundered.

So it went at the McKinney Independent School District’s Winter Wonderland Concert held at 7 p.m. Tuesday evening at Dowell Middle School.

But before a single note was delivered to a standing room only crowd of more than 500, Kari Zamora, orchestra director at Dowell and Faubian Middle Schools, took a moment to calm the nerves of 65 anxious sixth-graders.

“You guys are gonna be great,” Zamora said. “You’re without a doubt the best sounding beginning orchestra I’ve heard in a long time.”

Zamora’s counsel continued with a quick succession of staccato affirmations.

“There’s nothing to be scared of. All the answers are up here. Just watch me, I’ll give you everything you need. You’ll never have to guess.”

In private, Dowell Middle School student Jonah Chen, 12, said he wasn’t nervous about playing his violin in front of a live audience. All he wanted to do was make a statement.

“I missed rehearsal yesterday and now I can prove myself,” Chen said.  “We went out to eat with family for a couple of hours and I accidentally missed practice. I want to show my dad I’m just like him, a good violin player.”

As Chen finished speaking, his beginner orchestra cohorts, a whopping 4 months of musical training under their belts, left the practice room and headed to the stage. There they met the other 135-orchestra and band students representing Dowell, Evans, Faubian and Johnson Middle Schools.

Divided into three performing ensembles – beginner, intermediate, and full symphony orchestras – each group of students performed a holiday tune or two ranging from Jingle Bells and Frosty The Snowman to the Ukrainian Bell Carol. 

A sing-along, led by Kay and Steve Austin, allowed the audience to participate in several perennial Christmas favorites including “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Joy To the World.”

Margaret Johnson, orchestra director for Scott Johnson and Dowell Middle Schools, spoke of the impetus for assembling 200 divergent student musicians in one place for one grand holiday concert.

“We want all students to experience a taste of the real world,” Johnson said. “In school, the students take strings or band. They don’t take full orchestra. 

“But when you go to the movies, when you turn on the TV or when you go to the Ice Capades --anyplace you hear music, you’re hearing a full orchestra with woodwinds, percussion, brass and strings.

“And yet whenever they’re in school, they only do strings or they only do band. The orchestra gives a concert and the band gives a concert. That’s only half the equation. We need each other to create the real world.”