A Student Orchestra, Where the Players Decide What to Play

From voaspecialenglish.com | http Matthew Martz has always loved music. Matt was a high school student when he formed the Student Symphonic Orchestra of Fairfax. It began with 12 friends from school. One of them was Michelle Bui. MICHELLE BUI: “Matt is one of my very good friends. So I did it as a friend, but also because I love playing the violin.” Michelle likes the orchestra because its members choose the music they will play. MICHELLE BUI: “We’ve played some pop music. We’re playing ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ We’re playing John Williams, who is a famous composer who did ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Superman,’ in addition to the classical music.” Lizzie Culbertston plays French horn. LIZZIE CULBERTSON: “It has a really, really versatile sound, first of all. I can do so many things with it. It can be really pretty or it can be really angry. It can go higher or lower.” The Student Symphonic Orchestra now has more than 30 members, including Nicholas Black. He likes the group because its music is more difficult than what he plays for his school orchestra. NICHOLAS BLACK: “The music here is much more complicated, it’s a lot harder. But I think it’s partly because it’s also with woodwinds and brass, and basically with a band. At school, we do just strings. We don’t have a complete orchestra or anything.” Thirteen year old Kanika Sahi is the youngest member. KANAKA SAHI: “They just show me how to read better, different techniques of playing, stuff like that.” Matt Martz …