About the Orchestra

History of the orchestra

In the 88-89 school year, the newly re-established orchestra program in the Issaquah School District evolved to the point where the high school classes could be combined into one larger ensemble, and they adopted the non-school referring name - Evergreen Philharmonic. The guiding principal was to establish a full symphonic orchestra that would serve the students from all the high schools as the premiere district orchestra. It wasn’t long before auditions were necessary for membership and 2025 brought 198 auditions to fill the seats of the orchestra, including non-graduating members, who must re-audition to get back into the orchestra each year.

Since those formative years, the orchestra has enjoyed an interesting and varied history. There were several concert tours to Europe and eastern Canada, as well as an appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2011. Since travel has been severely restricted recently by insurance liability issues and the increasing difficulty with transporting large instruments on airlines, we have sought to expand our concert variety at home. Swingin’ in Vienna and the Pops Concert are examples of this effort. The Concerto Concert which features soloists performing major concerti is now a showcase for students who have achieved a very high level of musicianship.

The students attend daily orchestra classes in each high school and each Friday after school, the whole orchestra rehearses together. This group of talented musicians performs an ambitious and varied schedule of concerts during the year, including standard symphonic literature, musical theater, waltz music for dancing, and concerti. 

As part of the enrichment of this program, the orchestra enjoys a recording session at the end of each year. In 2015, this process went digital and recordings of the orchestra may be found at  bandcamp.com. 

In 2018, Doug Longman retired and Leah Weitzsacker succeeded him as director. Mr. Longman is still very active in the orchestra as the string coach. The tradition of excellence within Evergreen has continued on and the orchestra continues to serve as a professional training ensemble and we have seen graduates accepted for further study by major music schools such as Julliard, Eastman Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Colgate, Rice University and many others. Also, many students in the orchestra will go on to study music as a minor, and often go on to play in community orchestras for many years. Due to the outstanding support of the parents and taxpayers of the Issaquah School District, Evergreen Philharmonic has had a wonderful venue for performances at the Longman Performing Arts Center of Issaquah High School.