Orchestra in the Plymouth Canton Community Schools

 

Wayne Dunlap was the first to teach orchestra in the Plymouth Schools. The director of the Plymouth Symphony from 1949-1960, Mr. Dunlap remained the Orchestra Director for Plymouth until he started the music program at Schoolcraft College. He remained at Schoolcraft until 1963 and moved to Grand Valley State University, where he taught until he retired.

1964 and 1965 were years of change as new directors came and went. Fred Nelson was responsible for the orchestra at West Junior High School and at Plymouth High School. Larry Livingston was director of the East Orchestra. It is significant to note that all of the Junior High Schools had an orchestra for each grade level from the 50’s through the “dark” year of 1981, when the program was eliminated.

In 1965 H. Michael Endres became director of Orchestra at Plymouth High School, a position he held until his retirement in 1995. Mr. Endres taught at Tanger and Farrand Elementaries, schools that fed West Junior High. As new buildings opened, each had a string program. When the new High School opened, all five junior high schools offered band, choir and orchestra—taught by five teachers who co-taught all three areas.

In 1981 the junior high day was cut from seven classes to the current schedule of six periods. Over the next two years enrollment in orchestra at some of the schools dropped. Despite the success of a pilot elementary program at a few schools, the overall decline in enrollment led to the elimination of the string classes during the scheduled day. It was allowed to continue as a “zero hour” class at the high school for those students “brave” enough (and alert enough) to suffer the early morning class time.

In the budget crunch years of the early 90’s, transportation for the early class was eliminated. Students and parents responded by transporting students themselves and the following year the bus service was reinstated. The number of students enrolled fluctuated from year to year, directly related to the hardship of the extra hour and problems with the shuttle busses. Enrollment often dipped into the teens, making it increasingly difficult to keep numbers up at the high school.

In 1995, after thirty years of “fighting the good fight” H. Michael Endres retired. His orchestras had received consistently high ratings at both district and state festivals. In the early 70’s, the symphony, under his direction, was invited to perform at the Midwest Music Conference in Chicago, one of the highest musical honors accorded a high school ensemble.

Debbie Stearns became orchestra director in 1995, and remained for two years. Under her direction, the ensembles began to grow again. When Catherine K. DePentu became director in 1997, the middle school orchestra had grown to twenty-five members from fifteen and the high school orchestra had grown from seven to thirteen. In 1999, Erin Zurbuchen was hired as associate director of the middle school strings. The incredible progress made by our beginning string classes is due to her inspired teaching.

Since 1997, the growth of the orchestra program has been steady and substantial. The middle school ensemble has more than tripled in size and the district is seriously considering phasing it back into the middle school schedule. The high school orchestra reached an all time high enrollment, and will continue to grow as the middle school program provides more and more young musicians. In 2006, for the first time in the history of our orchestras, we welcomed the newly formed Concert Orchestra to our program.

The middle school orchestra has performed in tandem with the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra for the past seven years. This collaboration at the February concerts has allowed young musicians to work closely with professional musicians and has been invaluable as a way to promote our program.

The Chamber Orchestra performs more than ten times every year, for a variety of civic and school groups. This outreach has helped us become an integral part of our community. The PCEP Symphony Strings continue to explore performance opportunities in Michigan and around the midwest. We have performed in Chicago several times over the past six years, and will continue to travel out of state to perform at festivals and workshops. This revives a tradition, dormant since the 70’s, of performing for festivals and clinics on the national level.