East Lansing High School Orchestra to Celebrate 75 Years with Reunion Concert Featuring Alumni and Former Director

Generations of East Lansing students have practiced instruments from a young age in preparation to play in the lauded East Lansing High School Orchestra.

In the spring, many of those former students will reunite to mark the orchestra’s 75th anniversary.

David Rosin started his teaching career at Lansing’s Sexton High School before coming to ELHS in 2008 to lead its band and orchestra.

“It’s just a great program,” he said. “The facilities were great, the kids are great, [and] I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

Since earlier this year, Rosin has been connecting with orchestra alumni to invite them back for the anniversary show, which will be held in the spring.

“I’m just looking at the list right now,” he said. “We have 54 people signed up to come back, and we haven’t even done the hard mailing yet. This is just through [the] internet and a few emails.”

Rosin said the plan is to perform a couple of pieces with his high school and middle school groups, and then invite alumni to join.

“We’ve also commissioned three pieces for the performance from different composers around the country,” he said.

Rosin is working to identify all alumni who wish to participate by the start of 2026 so they have time to practice the music. He said the music program will provide instruments if individuals don’t have their own.

His predecessor, Dorothy McDonald, will return to conduct.

McDonald led the orchestra and ELHS band from 1977 to 2008. When she arrived, the orchestra was almost bust. Her predecessor had left, and the district had ended the beginning band and string programs that had started in the fifth grade.

She worked hard, coming in part-time to teach fourth-grade students who would arrive an hour before school started to learn their instruments.

“[It] created all these young kids who started on string instruments, and when they got to middle and high school, they were ready [for the orchestra],” she said. “I knew these kids and taught them for three years by the time they reached high school. We were a family.”

McDonald said that the unique population that makes up the district allowed the program to grow and prosper. Many of her students were children of professors at Michigan State University.

“They had high expectations,” she said. “Not to have a sophisticated orchestra is unimaginable.”

McDonald said the support of her students’ parents was important. They rallied around her and the program whenever there was a looming budget cut or threat of a cut.

“People would show up to the board meetings and demand it come back,” she said. “Geralyn Turner, one of the mothers, demanded a fine program for these students in East Lansing. Her husband was admissions dean at MSU, and she knew how to push the board in a wonderful way.

“Her son, Jeremy, went on to [have] a music career and wrote the first Google commercial music.”

Nathanael Flynn is another of McDonald’s former students. He graduated from ELHS in 1993 and started playing the cello in the fourth grade.

 “[The orchestra] had an assembly for second- and third-graders,” Flynn said, “and I remember seeing them at Donnelly [Elementary] and immediately being interested. So I would take the early high school bus in the fourth grade for the early morning strings program.

“It was such a unique experience.”

Flynn is looking forward to reconnecting with other orchestra alumni and seeing them pick up their instruments again and “remember that part of themselves.”

“All four of my kids play instruments,” he said. “Three of them play the cello. And watching them grow, playing the cello, has been really fun. It gives you a natural community of friendships. It gives you the ability to think differently. And not just the academic side with some of your traditional classes, but I think music really helps people to be able to expand their mind. I think it helps them socially; I think it builds confidence.”

McDonald commended Rosin for expanding the territory of music covered by the students. She said he has incorporated pop, jazz, and movie music genres.

“I hand-picked him,” she said. “He didn’t want to come in [but] he has just flourished. His imagination and creativity are just tops.”

McDonald is most proud of her former students.

“Several dozen keep in touch with me, and several are coming back [for the anniversary concert],” she said. “Maybe their influence will benefit [today’s students].”

The concert is planned for Thursday, May 21, 2026 and orchestra alumni can register and learn more here.