A whopping 379 orchestra students filled the gym at Palatine High School earlier this month for a rare combined concert. The performance featured Fremd and Palatine high school musicians alongside seventh and eighth graders from their feeder schools, including Sundling, Plum Grove, Carl Sandburg, Thomas Jefferson and Winston Campus middle schools.
Fremd Orchestra Director Marla Caballero
These stringed instrument students — of various levels — played violin, viola, cello and double bass, and filled the venue with beautiful music. All of which had Fremd Orchestra Director Marla Caballero feeling a bit sentimental. She is retiring at the end of this school year after 32 years as a teacher and orchestra director in District 211. But this concert brought her full circle; she literally could see herself in these students.
Caballero is a Palatine native, who started playing violin in fourth grade. She attended Sanborn Elementary School and Sundling Middle School, both in Palatine, before attending Fremd High School and playing in its orchestra.
Caballero describes herself as being fortunate to come from a musical family and a family of educators. Her mother still teaches flute and piano in Palatine and her father, Larry Stilgebauer, served as principal and assistant principal at four different schools in District 15, including the first principal at Lincoln Elementary School. Even her grandparents were educators, while several family members were musicians.
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“It may have been in my blood to become a music educator but I knew in high school that this is what I wanted to do,” Caballero says. “I was also fortunate to have amazing private teachers and orchestra directors who guided me along the way.”
At the combined concert, Caballero says they had only one hour to rehearse before their performance. She credits Palatine High School Orchestra Director Dung “Yoom” Pham, who led different levels of her orchestra students in a separate performance, as well as the middle school directors: Alexis Bourke of Sundling, Lisa Bruno of Plum Grove, Colleen Martinez of Carl Sandburg, Nadia Smith of Thomas Jefferson and Katie Doderer of Winston Campus with preparing their students for this special concert.
“I think one of the most important things is that the students and their parents got to experience the strength of the orchestra community coming together — and making music together,” Caballero says. “There were 379 students playing together. While Fremd and Palatine usually compete against each other, at this concert they were stronger together.
“All of the eighth graders got to sit next to a high school musician and this was a great experience for both,” she adds. “They got to know each other and the hope is that the younger students were able to learn from the older students.”
Beyond that, one of the main goals was to give these middle school students the chance to see themselves in a high school orchestra.
“I hope they saw that there truly is a place for each student, no matter their technical or musical background and level,” Caballero added.
This rare combined concert, bringing together young musicians from throughout the district, brough Caballero’s own experience back to her, making her realize just how much the gift of playing music — and sharing it with others — has enriched her life.
“This is a year of lasts,” she says, “so I’m choosing to really savor and appreciate the people and experiences that mean so much. ”
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