VYOA Blog

The faces in this picture are probably familiar. We’ve used their picture a few times, on the website, in printed materials, and in programs. These four smiling faces – left to right, Maddie Connery, Marisa Kono, Miles Glover, and Sam Kunin – are graduating, and we caught up with them to talk about all of the ways orchestra has impacted their lives. These four have had a long friendship – so we had a lot of laughs when we talked after rehearsal.

How did you choose your instrument?

Sam
I played the cello because I wanted to get out of my piano lessons. And also I always thought it sounded and looked cool. My grandparents were always taking me to concerts, and that was always the instrument that stood out.

Miles
I play the bassoon. I originally wanted to play the cello, but I couldn’t play cello in band. I started listening to bassoon and it’s way better than cello. I also play piano, which I’ve been playing for like 11 years.

Marisa
I played the violin because that’s what my parents wanted me to play, and it’s what my mom could teach me.

Maddie
Your dad could have taught you the tuba!

Marisa
Yeah, but you can’t learn that when you are 3 years old. I don’t have the cheeks for it.

Maddie
I play the violin. I wanted to play the harp, but my mom was like, “No, we’re not like getting you a harp to lug around everywhere.” Like, where do you even rent a harp? So they told me I could learn the harp if I learned another instrument first. Marisa had just moved into our town, and her mom was taking students. So I started taking violin lessons from Kathleen Kono when I was in second grade and Marisa was new to the school. She was the new girl in class and I was like, “Oh, I’m taking lessons from your mom.”

What are some favorite memories of the VYOA?

Sam
The green rooms go crazy, at The Flynn. There’s a lot of like, kind of frantic energy, a lot of excitement. Church Street excitement. Good memories, you know.

Miles
Yeah, my favorite memories are definitely the Reveille camps.

Sam
At camp, I jumped off, like…

Marisa
The building!

Sam
Yeah, that’s pretty good one. I was climbing a building and then I jumped. And….I tumbled…

Maddie
He didn’t jump that high.

Sam
It was like a solid 6 feet!

Marisa
It wasn’t. Sam probably got yelled at for this.

Sam
More importantly remember, we were eating lunch on the steps. There are random people that just kind of come up and just start talking. Sometimes you hear some really strange things and sometimes you hear some really interesting things, and there’s just a lot of stories and a lot of different people, different perspectives, kind of coming together to just eat. Sitting on the steps across the street, eating our lunch. And we’d spill a lot of food.

Maddie
Do you remember that we had The Amazing Race one year, and we had the bouncy house, and pool noodle fights? That was one of my favorite memories, when we were blindfolded and then they would spin you around and everyone would be around you in this giant circle. And then you would have, like a noodle fight with someone, but you’re both blindfolded. I did it when I was new; it was my first year in VYO and I was really tiny. There’s this photo of me trying to attack this big tuba player.

Sam
Yeah, it was nice cause there’s a lot of rehearsing, but at the same time, we always look forward to the extended breaks afterwards.

What has kept you coming back to music?

Sam
I guess, my parents, but that’s just on the on the surface. Below the surface I’d say that it’s very validating to stand up in front of a crowd and hear them clap, and you know why they’re clapping. It’s not about the applause, it’s about knowing why they’re applauding.

Miles
I like I personally enjoy like the emotion that everyone shares when they play really, like dramatic pieces. It’s like everything else just kind of stops and everyone’s focused on one thing. It’s a special relationship. That you don’t really get many other places, I would say.

Marisa
Yeah, I come because I just really like the sound of the whole orchestra and you just can’t get that anywhere else. In school band, you can’t get that sound of a string orchestra or a chamber group, you need this amount of people to make that sort of sound. And this is the only place you can do it.

Maddie
My mom always talks about how she loves coming to my concerts because she just thinks it’s like one of the like most pure things or one of the greatest things to watch, that so many people collectively take time out of their life to play music and make something beautiful together. I just think it’s nice that you can make that and contribute to that. Then you can also share it with your parents and people who have watched you sound terrible and go up to sounding not terrible.

Sam
I think it’s cool because like we’ve had a lot of different directors and everyone has always put a lot of effort into very carefully choosing the pieces. We always get a little bit of an explanation of the history behind the piece. These pieces have been played for dozens, if not hundreds of years. And it’s that same emotion, it’s that same feeling like regardless of what country or time it’s played in. It’s kind of cool to see that music withstands time. It’s just notes on a page, but when you play all together it just brings it back to life. When we played Romeo and Juliet, it was incredibly inspirational and influential story moved into music by some like Russian dude a couple hundred years ago. And now we’re just playing it here and now – it’s kind of crazy.

Maddie
Yeah, but then it’s also cool because we get to play pieces that are world premieres.

Sam
We’re the beginning – like when we played the premiere of Cold Mountain Suite

Maddie
It’s just interesting to see like the two sides of the spectrum. Playing music that’s so old and then also playing music that’s here today. Seeing where it comes from.

Miles
I think you also get like this really cool experience where it feels like you’re experiencing geography. As far as music, you’ll play some Russian music that’s very intense and you really feel that, or you’ll play some French music that’s very delicate like crystal.

So, what’s next for you and what role do you hope that music will play in your lives?

Sam
I think regardless of which classes we choose to take or which tracks we choose to pursue, playing in an ensemble, playing outside of your bedroom …putting your cello in a car and then going to a place and playing with other people and being vulnerable, that’s a skill that translates to any school, any country you want to live in. It’s very international, the music we play, there are always people playing these pieces. All around the world, and no matter where we are, I think there’s this ability to sit down and play music and you don’t need anything else. No matter what, we’ll always have that.

Miles
I use music as an escape. I don’t even really need to be like playing for anyone, I like to just practice piano. It’s like a daily escape from all like the chaotic nature of life. I think it’s very good for my mental health and that’s why I love it so much.

Marisa
Well, I just really enjoy working with other musicians and just people in the music world in general. So I look forward to doing that in the future, but probably on more of the administrative side.

Maddie
I’m planning on taking like lessons and maybe doing some more small group like type of work like in chamber music instead of the orchestra side of things, but I’m definitely planning on continuing to play my violin like for fun at college, but I don’t really know where it will take me in the future.

What would you tell your younger self as they prepared to attend their very first rehearsal?

Sam
I don’t know if I’m speaking for everybody else, but this happened for me. All of a sudden, as a kid, you just want to come and be here always. For a while, it’s another thing your parents make you do, but then you start to feel the music. You start to love a section, you start to connect to other people more. Man, I don’t know where that point happened exactly, but somewhere where I just said, “ohh, I’m excited for this.”

Marisa
Oh yeah, it’s kind of the same as Sam. When I was little I kind of dreaded orchestra rehearsal just because it’s just such a long time to be playing. But then I don’t know, like maybe halfway through my time at VYO, I started like wanting to come a little more and look forward to it. And I think it’s really like the group of friends that I found that make me actually come. I think it’s really important to have personal connections.

Maddie
With the violin in general, I used to just dread practicing. My teacher would give incentives to practice. She had a prize basket and if you’ve had seven days in a row of practicing you got a gift. It used to be that violin was just like this little chore.

But then I started realizing more and more that once I picked it up, I just didn’t want to put it down. I would lose track of time just like trying to make a piece perfect or trying to make it sound as good as I could. Something that surprised me was just that you’re never going to reach a point where you’re satisfied with how much you practice or how much you can like refine a piece. That’s frustrating, but it’s also so satisfying because you can always make something better, and you can always just keep polishing. Keep working on it.

Miles
I’d probably tell myself, just to be confident in what you’re doing. I used to be so timid playing bassoon. Now I just play as loud as I can and it’s just way more fun. You just you kind of own it. You have more of a role in the orchestra and that feels really good. So that’s what I would tell myself.

Anything else you want people to know?

Miles
I guess, to anyone that sees this: Play bassoon. It’s going extinct, and it’s like the greatest instrument. It’s so much fun and if you play bassoon, everyone will love you immediately. I was part of the endangered instrument program, and that’s how I got into VYOA.

Maddie
I wanna thank like, all the faces who’ve been in VYO every single time I walk in the building, who are always there, like Art, Kathleen, Ace, Mia, Myriam, and Rosina…

Sam
And Dr. Kono, Dr. Klemme, Dr. Cummings, especially Dr. Alpízar.

Maddie
Thanks for staying here and for believing in us – for devoting time to youth orchestras, because I feel like that’s such a random thing. Thanks for just spending time with us.