Orchestra

Location

An orchestra is a community where the essential and exclusive feature is that it is the only community that comes together with the fundamental objective of agreeing with itself. Therefore the person who plays in an orchestra begins to live the experience of agreement.
And what does the experience of agreement mean? Team practice - the practice of the group that recognizes itself as interdependent, where everyone is responsible for others and the others are responsible for oneself. Agree on what? To create beauty. -- José Abreu, the founder of El Sistema

Scrollworks orchestras are open to all youth musicians who demonstrate a commitment and passion for music.  Based upon an audition, students will be placed in one of multiple Scrollworks ensembles, otherwise known as the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Central Alabama.  Participants will have fun in a structured environment while cultivating essential ensemble skills such as rhythm, note-reading, and listening.  No matter their level of experience, each member of the Scrollworks orchestras will develop a sense of accomplishment and teamwork as they work to create unified, exciting, and beautiful sounds. Auditions may be taken throughout the year.

Please contact Samuel Nordlund, Scrollworks Music Director, for more information.

At the premier of his 9th symphony in 1824, Beethoven was on stage for the first time in twelve years. The audience was packed. But the orchestra and singers were instructed to ignore the beloved composer's direction because he was, by this point, profoundly deaf. During the performance, Beethoven beat the time and turned the pages for an orchestra he could not hear.

Here in Birmingham, children have a different problem. Many of them cannot play Mr. Beethoven's music because they do not have access to instruments and lessons. Scrollworks is changing that, teaching violin, trumpet, piano and more to 180 children every weekend.
 

The fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th, his musical representation of universal brotherhood, includes the beautiful 'Ode to Joy'. In this video, our youth orchestra demonstrates brotherhood through music in a way that makes the grim images of Birmingham's past vanish like smoke in a sunny sky.