Odle Symphony Orchestra

Barney Blough, Conductor

Odle Middle School | Bellevue, Washington, USA

1st Place Middle School Orchestra

The Odle Symphony Orchestra

The Odle Symphony is open to all band and orchestra students across the seventh and eighth grades. At Odle, there are no auditions and everyone is invited to participate. Some of the students are in the Gifted program at Odle, some take regular private lessons, some are in a local youth symphony, but many of the students have experienced music only through the public school music program. Our goal is to provide an enriching ensemble experience beyond the regular school day by creating musically inspired performances founded in a genuine love of orchestral music.

The Odle Symphony Orchestra was invited to be a featured performing group at the National Association of Music Educators Northwest Conference on February 17, 2017. The conference was a gathering of music teachers from throughout the Northwest who attended workshops, performances and clinics. The Odle Symphony wass one of only a handful of groups selected by audition from schools in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. Our audition recording features the full symphony orchestra, including woodwind, brass and percussion players from the band, who also joined the orchestra for this exciting performance.

The invitation to perform at the NAFME Northwest Convention is a tribute to the students’ commitment to excellence and willingness to dedicate themselves to rehearsing outside of the regular school day. To prepare for their performance the orchestra rehearsed after school once a week starting in December. They attended a weekend retreat in January that provided coaching from professional orchestra musicians. Specialists on each instrument, including several members of the Seattle Symphony, joined the students at the retreat to work together in “sectional” rehearsals, providing the students an opportunity to learn how the pros do it. Finally, they performed at a special concert in February that showcased the orchestra at their peak right before the NAFME conference. The orchestra also performed at the Northwest Orchestra Festival in Gresham, Oregon, where they won the prize for first place.

Odle Symphony Orchestra's Winning Performances Submitted to Ictus International Music Competition in 2017

Barney Blough

Working with young musicians is a lifelong passion for Barney Blough. In addition to teaching orchestra, he is currently the Arts Department Chair at Odle Middle School and the Middle School Orchestra lead for the Bellevue School District. Outside of school, Mr. Blough is the Director of the Sinfonia Orchestra for BYSO and an active performer with Orchestra Seattle. His conducting teachers include Pulitzer Prize winner Gunther Schuller. Mr. Blough received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from Central Washington University, and he will complete his Master’s degree in Music Education at CWU this summer.

Odle Symphony Orchestra

Violin

Kayleigh Black

Ivan Chan

Brandon Chen

Brian Chen

Jeffrey Chen

Nandini Daga

Caroline Dong

Daniel Gao

Abigail Hall

Christopher Hsu

Veronica Hsu

Daniel Hu

Nicole Lanchis

Samantha Kaing

Anjali Katta

Tae Kim

James Lai

David Lee

Nicholas Li

Andrea Liao

Annie Liu

Kollin Luo

Aditya Mummulla

Jessica Na*

Kevin Nam

Sandy Pal

Bill Pugh

Jonathan Ryou

Jonathan Shu

Jason Su

Audrey Tsai

Luke Tseng

Seita Tsutsumi

Calvin Tzen

Adora Wu

Aaron Xie

Alice Xing

Iris Yang

Richard Yang

Maggie Yu

Serene Zhang

Sherry Zhang

Alicia Zhi

Viola

Lydia Bae

Justin Chen

Brian Dinh

Rena Lee

Aska Mooko

Amy Tang

Alexander Tanimoto

Kristin Tapang

Hung Thai

George Wang

Ronald Wang

Faye Zhang

Arissa Zheng

Holly Zhu

Cello

Roderick Beddow

Hannah Chen

Keven Goh

Freye Gulamali

Anne Gvozdjak

Fornia He

Vivian Li

Arman Mohammed

Edward Qin

Elysia Quah

Jason Shen

Raj Sunku

Airi Suzuki

Aria Tang

Tri Tong

Peter Tran

Brian Xu

Mathew Yen

Bass

Kenneth Ma

Cameron MacCoy

Vignav Ramesh

Cody Rupp

Flute

Miles Baker

Paige Edwards

Eric Hu

Shreya Nambi

Daniel Sun

Anthony Xie

Oboe

Junnie Kim

Clarinet

Robert Chen

Jake Chung

Shiwoo Kim

Audrey Lee

Anne McDonald

Alex Wei

Bass Clarinet

Daniel Lu

Bassoon

Estella Xu

Horn

Matthew Jang

Priya Rasai

Dorothy Zhang

Trumpet

Timothy Krilov

Aidan Lawler

Omeed Moini

Trombone

Patrick Fan

Benjamin Li

Will Wang

John Yi

Tuba

Blaine Stapley

Percussion

Nate Krautwald

Patrick Snyder

John Van Horn

Eugene Yum

Concertmaster*