Priory strings play to honor 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking | Schools

The St. Andrew's Priory all-girl string orchestras paid homage to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic  on Friday night, Feb. 10, inside Kennedy Hall Courtyard.

Among the pieces performed were the Oscar-winning theme from the 1997 blockbuster movie, "My Heart Will Go On," and "Carpathia," a tragic piece about the RMS Carpathia which raced to the rescue of Titanic survivors from the icy seas.

The Carpathia's effort was a heroic but often  forgotten one. Upon receiving the radio transmission of the Titanic's position, the captain of the Carpathia ordered all available to personnel to the boiler rooms to keep the boilers at full pressure. He even ordered steam heat in passenger cabins turned off so that energy could be conserved for speed in the all-out dash to save Titanic's passengers. The ship vibrated from the strain on the engines but Carpathia made it to the site of the sinking and brought aboard 750 people who pulled alongside Carpathia in crammed lifeboats. The survivors were taken to New York.

Carpathia itself went to the bottom of the ocean when it was struck by a German U Boat during World War I.

Mezzo soprano Naomi Castro, the Priory choir teacher, sang "My Heart Will Go On," accompanied by the chamber strings and advanced intermediate strings.

Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg, and 1,517 passengers died. It was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time.

Other numbers performed in the concert included the 1963 surf rock hit by the Surfaris, "Wipeout" (chamber strings, advanced Intermediate strings, and intermediate strings), "Postcards from Russia" (chamber strings), "Ode To joy" (beginning strings), "Gauntlet" (advanced intermediate strings, intermediate strings, and beginning strings), and "Sailors' Song"  (advanced intermediate strings, intermediate strings and beginning strings).