“Orchestra’s just a beautiful place to be and everyone comes together to do what they love.”
That’s part of the reason Campus Middle School eighth-grader Aarna Dhawan doesn’t mind arriving at school at 7:30 a.m. – more than an hour before classes start – every Thursday. She and fellow eighth-grader Noah Wine are among the 45 dedicated student musicians who make up the Campus Chamber Orchestra.
“It’s a great group of people and Ms. Ward is a great teacher,” said Wine, who plays cello. “I really like making music with other people, and the music we make is a lot more difficult and a lot more fun.”
The Chamber Orchestra is made up of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who must audition to be in the group. The members are talented and focused, a combination that recently earned them two impressive honors.
At the American String Teacher's Association (ASTA) Large Group Festival, held March 5 at Cherokee Trail High School, the group received Superior ratings and earned a spot at the Colorado ASTA State Festival. Of the 90 orchestras that competed, only 24 earned ratings that qualified them for the state festival, and Campus was one of only two middle school groups to qualify. The rest were all high school orchestras.
The Colorado ASTA State Festival was held April 11 at the King Center on the campus of Metropolitan State University of Denver.
“It was a great experience to play there and perform and make music for the judges,” Wine recalled.
The Campus Chamber Orchestra again earned Superior ratings. Orchestra director Chelsea Ward said the students in the group are something special.
“While all young performing groups possess their own character and manner of working together, I have to say that this group of young musicians is unlike any other I have worked with in my 23 years teaching in Cherry Creek Schools,” Ward said. “They are driven, disciplined, intuitive, and incredibly musical.
“Making music with them early in the morning when the building is quiet is definitely one of the highlights of my teaching position at Campus, and I think they feel the same way about their orchestra - which is why they play so well and why we have so much fun,” she added.
More than 175 students participate in orchestra at Campus, which speaks to the quality and popularity of the program. There are two sixth-grade orchestra classes, two seventh-grade orchestra classes, one eighth-grade orchestra class, plus the Chamber Orchestra, which is an extracurricular group. All the orchestras will wrap up their performance season with concerts on May 16. Dhawan, a violinist, is glad to be part of the Campus orchestra family.
“Music is the universal language. You can’t go wrong with choosing music,” she said.
Posted 5/7/2024.
