2022 Editors' Choice Selections for String and Full Orchestra

Aliens are attacking... from the attic! Your beginning orchestra will love this fun programmatic work. Violins and violas play tense staccato ostinatos while the cellos and bass play an ominous melody below

This engaging piece for string orchestra is appropriate for any time of the year but is especially fun for a summer orchestra concert. Arco Polo is a musical depiction of the well-known

This mysterious hunt for ancient artifacts reveals important pedagogical concepts, including staccato, accents, bow lifts, pizzicato, dynamics, and fourth finger. Written in B minor with optional piano,

This spirited mashup combines the well-known holiday tunes Carol of the Bells and God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. Set in E Dorian, this arrangement avoids passages with

A cute, pedagogically based first-year bass section feature, this piece will be fun and is sure to make your beginners sound fabulous. This piece is in first position for all players except basses. Basses

An imagined soundtrack to a high-stakes game of espionage… the music drifts between episodes of intense dissonance and brief moments of calm, allowing you to catch your breath before the chase

Many special experiences are joyful or thrilling, such as flying for the first time, a big sports moment, or the excitement of a first concert. Young musicians should find this both easily accessible and

A very pleasing melody with beautiful harmony and creative use of dissonance. Every section has interesting parts and will reinforce pizzicato as well as a variety of articulations. A joy to listen to and

This incredibly clever adaptation reflects the joyful yet dignified character of Holst's Jupiter from "The Planets." While directly quoting Holst's masterpiece, this arrangement

An English country dance from Ignatius Sancho's Minuets Cotillons & Country Dances, the two-part writing in D major for this string orchestra arrangement explores interesting dynamics

Designed to give students experience reading G and C string notes, this electrifying rock-style piece uses simple rhythms, accents, staccato, and changing dynamics to exciting effect. Every section gets a

Beginning string students will have a diabolically good time with this all-pizzicato selection. Gleefully sinister melodies pass between all sections, and simple quarter- and half-note accompaniment

So many performance options and combinations! Equally suited as an opener or closer, this Baroque-meets-contemporary festival-style work has exceptional performance flexibility as a multilevel or

Have some toe-tapping fun with this rocking arrangement of Jolly Old St. Nicholas for young string orchestra. All sections get to play the melody, and students have the opportunity to

How does Santa spend Spring Break? With Vivaldi of course! Audiences and musicians will love this clever and well-scored mash-up of favorite holiday tunes intertwined with Spring from

Waking up on a cold winter day. Sledding. Hot chocolate. It's a snow day! This warmhearted original work is craftily designed using only the notes of the D major scale. With its bright melodies and jingle