Tomorrow, the Sonshine Ensemble will be performing at Mountain View Gardens at 3pm.
We will be playing the Theme and Variations by Schubert, an arrangement of Marine’s Hymn, a Corelli concerto, and others.

Sonshine Ensemble

The Inge Young String Competition was yesterday. Congratulations to Hannah Struse for placing 1st in Division III.

Cochise Music Teacher’s Association will be having their annual master classes for violin and piano.
The violin master class will be on Friday February 6 at UofA South at 4:00pm.
Piano Master Class will be at Francie’s Piano Lessons 831 Plaza Encanto Sierra Vista at 10am on Saturday February 7.

Master Class Instructors are Dr. Sancho Manzano (strings) and Kassandra Weleck (piano).

The Cochise County Youth Orchestra will be starting their 2015 semester next week. See ccyo.info for more information.

The Sierra Vista Symphony will be having a concert on Friday, January 16, 7pm at Buena High School. Click HERE for more information.

Hello everyone,
Hope had her senior recital on December 28, 2014.
She had around an hour of music, followed by speeches from Debbie Dinkel, Adrienne Hickey, CMTA members; Mrs. Stahl, her very 1st piano teacher;Dr. Bernier, her current teacher, and our Dad. Afterwards we enjoyed the reception which Mom, us girls, and a couple friends made. Hope had an audience of about eighty seven. I also posted videos in previous posts of the performance.

Enjoy the pictures. Sincerely, Maranatha Struse

Hope Struse

The chairs are ready!

Some of the yummy refreshments

Punch

Hope, Maranatha, Mom, Hannah

Mrs. Stahl, Hope’s first piano teacher; Hope; Kiyono Bernier, Hope’s current teacher

Folding programs

Hope and Hannah playing “The Swan”. See the blog post Hope Struse Senior Recital on You Tube for videos of the performance.

Hope and Maranatha playing Vocalise

The audience.

The Struse Family
Noah, Maranatha, Hope, Hannah, Zane, Mom, & Dad.

Here is my favorite piece from Hope’s Senior Recital.

Hello everyone, My sister Hope is having her senior recital next weekend. It will be held at Kino Hall, SV; 800 Taylor Dr. on December 28, 2014 at 4:00pm. The concert will include both piano and cello including composers such as Scarlatti, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, & Saint Saens. I hope to see you there! Sincerely, Maranatha Struse

Hope Struse senior photo

Practicing at Kino Hall.

Hope and I practicing.

Dear subscribers,
Being a member of an ensemble, playing music together, creating music that comes from multiple instruments and musicians is a great experience. We sure do have some fun and lively practice sessions in our group with my siblings and our friends the Simmons. Here are some pictures of the ensemble from throughout the year. We had several concerts:
January 2014 was our winter 2013 semester concert at Mountain View Gardens;
May 8: we were guest performers in the Cochise County Youth Orchestra spring concert
May 18 was our spring 2014 semester concert.
May 25: We then played the same program at the impressive Gadsden Hotel in Douglas.
August: We played at Mountain View Gardens for friends, family, and elderly, our summer pieces.
September 20: Performers at “Medley of Melodies” a fundraising concert for the youth orchestra.
November 1: We played in the 7th annual Autumn Grace Recital.
And tomorrow, we will play at the end of my studio recital as guest performers.

We are currently working on our repertoire for our next concert. Some of the pieces will include Vivaldi’s Winter Concerto Movement 3; an arrangement of the Marine’s Hymn for string quartet; Movement 4 of Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Come Thou Fount, and Scottish Ballade.

That’s all for now, Maranatha Struse

Group photo on May 8th.

We were getting set up for our group picture and were having a great time.

The staircase in the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas.

Some of us played on this landing where the stands are. The cellists were to the left of that staircase and the bassist was to the right.

The violinists.

Hope Struse one of the cellists.

Deborah and Sarah Simmons (cello/guitar).

Jeremiah and Sarah Simmons (violin/viola). Although Jeremiah didn’t join us for that semester, he performed as a guest on the very last piece, Shamrock Polkas.

James Simmons, the bassist.

Ruth Ann Simmons as a guest performer on solo piano.

All of us at the Gadsden.

We were rehearsing the Music Box Dancer which we played at the Autumn Grace Recital. Jordanne, on snare/bass drum and Daniel Struse on electric guitar were guest additions to our ensemble for that piece. This photo was during the rehearsal for the piece…and after we got back from a 11 mile hike!

Group photo at our concert in August.

Congratulations to Sarah Tompkins for completing Suzuki Violin Book 1 on November 20.

Sarah Tompkins

Sarah and me, her violin teacher

Cotton-wood leaves, photo taken on November 29th.

Hello subscribers,
Here are just a few events that will be happening in December! Sincerely, Maranatha Struse

December 3^rd 7pm at Kino Hall
Cochise County Youth Orchestra will present their winter concert. There is no admission fee, but they ask for a canned good that will be donated to Calvary’s Rock Church Food Closet.

December 14^th, 4:30 at Kino Hall
My students will perform a couple pieces each for my winter studio recital.

December 21^st 7pm at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church
The Sierra Vista Community Christmas Choir will present the Advent and portions of Handel’s Messiah.

December 28^th 7pm at Kino Hall
My sister Hope will present her senior recital including such composers as: Bach, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin. She will play piano and cello.