Where we’ve come from, where we are: A brief history from June 2006 to February 2007

July 2006: The first two weeks we held an intensive two-week introduction to strings camp, aimed mainly at students who had studied other instruments and were ready to transfer their skills to the violin family. The students came every day at 8 a.m. and wore their arms out over the course of the days as they developed the new muscles and skills they would need to play. The third week the Singing River Youth Orchestra had its very first rehearsal and organizational meeting. Many of them had gotten their start at the Strings Camp.

August 2006: The Singing River Youth Orchestra had its debut concert with sixteen students. We combined it with a recital of piano and harpsichord students, some of whom are also strings students in the orchestra.

September 2006: We re-created a Board of Directors for ECIAS and had our first meeting. Jeremy Eisler of Ocean Springs graciously agreed to serve as our volunteer legal counsel. The Singing River Youth Orchestra resumed rehearsals with the addition of a few woodwinds and a few more strings students. Emerald Coast Concerts hosted its first event, a concert featuring Mobile Symphony Concertmaster Enen Yu on violin and pianist Ping Lin, a professor of piano at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in China.

October 2006: The Board of Directors had its second meeting and learned that the corporation was still valid with the state of Mississippi. We sponsored the First Annual Singing River Jazz Festival with guest artists from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Singing River Youth Orchestra got a new rehearsal home at the Eastlawn United Methodist Church in Pascagoula.

November 2006: Emerald Coast Concerts sponsored the Horizon String Quartet! We held our first Baroque and Before Event with a Harpsichord Workshop led by Dr. Adam Decker of Early Keyboards of Atlanta. Our Board continued meeting and working... and growing, as more wonderful and hard-working people agreed to help our agency. Mr. Jim Yancy of The Jackson County Services Coalition attended our meeting and was full of great ideas and guidance. The Singing River Youth Orchestra worked hard to prepare for the Christmas Concert.

December 2006: The Honorable Jess Dickinson, Supreme Court Justice for the State of Mississippi, joined our orchestra for their Christmas Concert, and played his Hammered Dulcimer in a concerto version of the Ode to Joy! The American Legion Post 160 of Pascagoula presented five of our students with scholarships: $2000!!.... and an anonymous donor presented three of our younger students each with a $50 scholarship, so eight of the nineteen members of the Singing River Youth Orchestra were awarded scholarships. We made the first contacts with people to help us organize the Emerald Coast Chess Club. It should be in operation by mid April of 2007! The Board of Directors worked hard on ideas for making the Singing River Strings Festival a reality.

January 2007: We started our website. We filled out the Board of Directors. We have nine members, plus our volunteer attorney, and a volunteer staff. Mr. Shane Scara, internal communications editor at the Northrup Grumman Shipyard, agreed to become our public relations director. Emerald Coast Concerts sponsored a violin concert featuring Micheal Brook and Joel Martinez, both first violins with the Gulf Coast Symphony, both 19 years old, and both violin majors at LSU. The Singing River Youth Orchestra sponsored the artists in a master class that morning, and six aspiring violinists played for it.