Welcome to the District 89 Orchestra website!  Mr. Teppema and Ms. Ditsch are happy to welcome you to a program that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Check up on this page from time to time to get updates on our program, check rehearsal schedules, and check out the great possibilities orchestra has to offer. We are looking forward to a fantastic year!

We take great pride in our orchestra program and believe that all children are capable of playing a string instrument regardless of “talent”, “giftedness” or musical background. Our goal is to give your child a lifelong opportunity to perform and appreciate music not only from our culture, but also from many other cultures around the world. Orchestral music, which is considered one of Western culture’s greatest treasures, cannot be performed without string instruments. Rock and contemporary music relies on string players more and more.   The greatest selling rock song of all time has a singer, one guitar, and a string quartet (“Yesterday” by the Beatles). These days, we are seeing a great deal of genres incorporating string instruments, from country music to pop music, heard on the radio everyday!

A good string and orchestra education, along with a comprehensive fine arts program, is an important characteristic of a quality school district.  The orchestra program is one of the reasons District 89 is such a high achieving school district.

This webpage has many useful resources in it. There are links for assignments that we are working on in class, as well as links to great orchestral websites. Use the links at the top of the page to find the information you need and to learn more about the orchestra community.

We are off to a great start this year! Feel free to contact Ms. Ditsch or Mr. Teppema with any questions!