50 state string orchestra project

DAVID BERNARD-STEVENS + HASTINGS HIGH SCHOOL ORCHESTRAS

HASTINGS, NEBRASKA

Hastings, Nebraska has a long and rich history of excellence in music education, with a successful instrumental music program throughout the 20th century, including outstanding public school music, the Hastings Symphony (now in its 97th season!), and Hastings College. The orchestras in the Hastings Public Schools consist of elementary lessons starting in 4th grade, continuing through middle school and culminating in three high school orchestras. Full Orchestra collaborates with the band program, String Orchestra is open to all with experience, and the Chamber Orchestra is a select group of students who perform in the community, earn positions in honor orchestras in the region, and several members perform with the local Hastings Symphony. Hastings Orchestras have consistently earned outstanding ratings at adjudicated festivals at the regional and state level, including NE-ASTA festivals, and have a mission to prepare students for a life of making and loving music as adults, studying both established classics as well new and diverse musical viewpoints. The orchestra is proud to support the creation of new orchestral music.

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A native of North Platte, Nebraska, David Bernard-Stevens graduated from the Honors Program at the University of Nebraska in 2007, studying violin with David Neely and conducting with Carolyn Barber and Tyler White. He first taught in Junction City, Kansas for 11 years, growing the orchestra there from 12 to more than 60, as part of one of the few expanding string programs in the region at the time. He completed his Master's Degree at Kansas State University before returning to Nebraska, assuming the director's position of the Hastings Public Schools Orchestra program. In Hastings, Bernard-Stevens has developed the Chamber Orchestra with the goal of developing player technique through learning both the established classics and sharing new viewpoints from underrepresented musical voices and performing new music wherever possible. He is a member of NAfME and ASTA.

about
the 50 state
string orchestra project

2022-2024

The 50 State String Orchestra Project is a large-scale consortium commission that is bringing new music to classrooms and concert halls all over the US in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons, with educational and community orchestras in all 50 states commissioning a new piece for string orchestra, similar in difficulty level and scope to Stephanie’s 2011 work for string orchestra Beyond the Gate. Her consortium commissions for chamber music have already brought new string-centered music all across the world, from her 50 State Sonata Project for violin + piano, inspired by the work of her teacher John Kendall, and her World Sonata Project, which was commissioned by violinists from 35 countries in 2016.