The Pleasant Valley High School Orchestra is rehearsing together seventh period for the 2018-2019 school year. The last time all four grades held class together was during the 2015-2016 school year.
In the past four years, the orchestra has gone from rehearsing together seventh period to splitting the orchestra into upper class and lower orchestras where they rehearse sixth and seventh periods respectively.
During the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school year, the orchestra was split into two orchestras: freshmen and sophomores were in seventh period orchestra and juniors and seniors were in sixth period orchestra.
There were multiple reasons the orchestra was combined in the first place. It was a way for underclassmen to meet upperclassmen. Many friendships were created during orchestra despite the fact that students were in different grades.
“I met a lot of upperclassmen through orchestra,” senior violinist Jeanelle Cho said. “I am still in touch with them today even though they are in college.”
Another benefit of having the orchestra combined is so the orchestra can always rehearse together. This is in order to sound the best for concerts and festivals.
The reason the orchestra had to split for the 2016-2017 school year was because of scheduling conflicts. Many orchestra students wanted to take AP Chemistry which is only offered seventh period. The students still wanted to participate in orchestra, which was a requirement to audition for All-State and to be in the Quad City Youth String Ensembles.
The solution was to have a sixth period orchestra for upperclassmen and a seventh period orchestra for underclassmen.
“I liked the separated orchestra more because it was easier to progress and improve since we were in a smaller group,” Cho said. “Since our orchestra now consists of freshmen to seniors, there is a wide range of playing levels and it is hard to find a perfect middle ground for everyone.”
Near the end of last year when students were creating their schedules for this school year, many students found they had a conflict with orchestra and Civil Engineering and Architecture, both held sixth period.
Emily Preston was one student who had this conflict. “When I found out that two classes that I valued conflicted each other, I was super upset,” Preston said. “I needed to learn more about architecture, since I’m considering becoming one and orchestra means so much to me.”
Several solutions were talked over: dropping orchestra, creating an eighth period orchestra or combining orchestras. Many teachers, counselors and administrators were involved in finding a solution.
Eventually the most reasonable solution was to combine orchestra again. This allowed for students to still enroll in the Civil Engineering class sixth period and be a part of orchestra seventh period.
While this solved one problem, some students were experiencing the problem with AP Chemistry that caused the orchestras to split in the first place. But the number of students who wanted to take AP Chemistry was far fewer than the number of students who wanted to take Civil Engineering and Architecture.
The orchestra has performed one concert this school year. The next concert will be Dec. 4.
