The string section is multiplying: the orchestra now has three groups, alongside a new president.

“Our program has grown to a point where it didn’t work anymore for us to be in two groups,” Serge Penksik, orchestra director, said. “We ended up having around eighty students in one section. There’s not enough space or instruments with what we have, so we split the concert orchestra into two sections, thirty-five to forty students each.”

Penksik has been pushing for this for several years, he said. The incoming freshmen helped increase the program numbers to the size where a second orchestra was necessary.

Plus, a new president has more changes in store. Angela Ketchum, senior and orchestra president, has pushed forward with plans to improve the orchestra, starting with symphony. She hopes to better the organization and to make the class more fun.

“We have a new way to set up for rehearsal, a brand new system including rearranging the room,” Ketchum said. “We have a tuning system where we all play by section, and we also have a new way of the section leaders helping out the students in their sections so that we can sound better as a whole.”

It has not been the easiest, with things like old papers, strange sticky liquids, and random instruments found in the storage room, Ketchum said. However, things are cleaner and more organized now, and all instruments have been claimed. She’s optimistic about the upcoming year.

 
“I really really hope that people start to get enthusiastic again about orchestra because we’ve had a lot of slacking and dreading,” Ketcham said. “I’m just hoping that everybody, even if they’re not thinking about orchestra as a profession, they can at least take this class and really excel with it and have fun with it.”