Music Director Andrew Perkins conducts a recent rehearsal of the Fenton Community Orchestra. Photo: Tim Jagielo/WDET
“The sounds of the Fenton Community Orchestra surge from the parking lot behind the high school on a clear spring evening,” writes Tim Jagielo in Thursday’s (8/4) WDET radio (Detroit). “It’s a standard orchestral warm-up—but it’s the first time the musicians have played together since March of 2020.… The pandemic had ended their weekly rehearsals and regular public performances…. As businesses reopened and mask mandates were lifted, performance groups were also able to return…. The FCO had 149 members before the pandemic; 119 are signed up now…. FCO Director Andrew Perkins says his group is poised to make a robust return to the stage. However … the first priority was just socializing and catching up…. The Fenton Community Orchestra is a multi-generational group, with preteens and octogenarians playing together…. … ‘I’m just so happy to be back,’ [clarinetist Cheryl] Kopplin says…. The Fenton Community Orchestra hopes to return with an in-person season with regular rehearsals and performances this fall. As cases of the delta variant of COVID-19 increase nationwide, Perkins Perkins says, …‘We are trying to be as proactive as possible while staying open to the possibility that we may have to pull it back again if things decline,’ he says.”
