Meet the Orchestra

An orchestra is a group of musicians that play music instruments together. A conductor leads the group and must keep everyone playing together on the beat! The orchestra has four groups of instruments. They are strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.

Listen to the music example below of an orchestra playing. It’s called ‘Spring’, by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. It’s part of a larger work he composed, called ‘The Four Seasons’.

Vivaldi: Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, Spring

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Watch ‘A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’

A famous English composer named Benjamin Britten wrote a piece of music to help listeners learn about the instruments of the orchestra. The music begins with the full orchestra playing together, and then each instrument family — woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion — takes a turn being featured on its own. As the music goes on, you can hear how each instrument sounds and how it fits into the orchestra. At the end, all the instruments come back together in an exciting finale, showing how the orchestra works as a team.

✏️ Complete page 1, 2, 3 in your workbook.