Owensboro Public Schools Celebrate Life is theme for 2013 Fine Arts Festival

Owensboro Public Schools’ 2013 Fine Arts Festival will start Monday and run through March 28. The festival will feature more than 2000 fine arts students’ talents in a series of performances and visual arts displays. All performances are free and open to the public.

The festival opens on Mon., Mar. 18, at 7 p.m. at the RiverPark Center with Choir Night. Music will be centered around the theme of “OPS Celebrates Life.” Choirs from Owensboro High School, Owensboro Middle School’s North and South campuses, and Cravens, Estes, Foust, Newton Parrish and Sutton elementary schools will perform numbers including “Celebrate with Jubilant Song” and “If You’re Out There.”

Band Night performance groups will include Owensboro Middle School 5^th through 8^th grade bands who will join Owensboro High School’s Jazz Band, Percussion Ensemble, Red Steel Percussion and Wind Ensemble groups on Tues., Mar. 19, at 7 p.m. at the RiverPark Center. Music will celebrate moments ranging from the gentle “Appalachian Morning” to the rousing “March of the Irish Guard.”

OMS and OHS orchestra students will take the RiverPark stage on Wed., Mar. 20. Newton Parrish Elementary School Strings students will also play and will be joined by Bluegrass musician Randy Lanham to perform Rock and Roll numbers.

Grades 6 through 12 will be performing their concert festival selections and the OHS Chamber Orchestra will perform Beatles’ numbers Eleanor Rigby and A Hard Day’s Night.

On Tues., Mar. 26, Drama Night will be in the Owensboro High School Theatre at 7 p.m. Owensboro Middle School drama students will perform The Snow Show by Lindsay Price, a production that earned a standing ovation and high praise when the OMS troupe performed it at the Junior Thespian Festival in Augusta, GA, recently. The OHS Rose Curtain Players will perform Among Friends and Clutter also written by Price. The Rose Curtain Players performed at the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Louisville last weekend and won “Best High School One-Act Play.”

It will be back to the RiverPark Center on Wed., Mar. 27, at 7 p.m. for the ever popular Dance Night featuring performances by Hager Preschoolers, Cravens Second Graders, Estes Dance Team, Foust Feet, Newton Parrish Fourth Graders, Sutton Second Graders, Owensboro Middle School North and South Dance troupes, and Owensboro High School’s Encore, Dance Intro, Advanced Dance and Step Team troupes. School day performances on Thurs., Mar. 28, at 9:15 a.m. and 12 noon will be open to the public as well as for OPS students.

More than 700 pieces of art from all OPS elementary through high school grades will be on display in the OPS Visual Arts Exhibit in the RiverPark Center Lobby from Mar. 18 through Mar. 27. Art forms will include two- and three-dimensional student works. Mondrian-style canvases and student portraits created by OPS students will frame the RiverPark stage.

“This event is a Signature one for our school district. Few communities have the combined resources for the arts that are offered in Owensboro. Even fewer enjoy the outstanding support our district offers to every student. Our commitment is that every child has access to a quality arts education. Our 14th annual fine arts festival is proof that we live that motto every day in our schools,” said Tom Stites, OPS Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator.

Source: Owensboro Public Schools