According to assistant orchestra director Elisabeth Ohly-Davis, Symphony Orchestra members and Philharmonic Orchestra members will compete at the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) qualifications on May 1 and 2, respectively, at Pike High School. If the groups play well enough, they will advance to the ISSMA State competition on May 9 at Pike.  In addition, all orchestra members will perform at the spring orchestra concert on May 19 at the Palladium. The concert will begin at 7 p.m., and tickets cost $10.

Evelyn Shan, Symphony Orchestra member and senior, said that the pieces Symphony Orchestra will perform at ISSMA will be the same ones that will be played at the spring concert. These pieces are: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 5,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to Candide” and Edward Elgar’s “Salut d’Amour.”

Although Shan said she would like to win ISSMA State this year, she said she ultimately cares more about being able to play alongside her friends.

Shan said, “Last year, we got runner-up (at ISSMA State), so we didn’t win. The previous years before that, Symphony Orchestra had been winning, so it was kind of a shock. It was kind of surprising when they called us up for second place. But I guess from that experience last year, I realized that all the time and energy that I’ve put into orchestra, as well as all the relationships I’ve made within orchestra, are in the end what really matters. So going into ISSMA, I’m so incredibly excited to be playing alongside these people that I’ve known for so many years, and I want to play well obviously, but at the end of the day, whatever place we get, at qualifications and at State if we get there, it just doesn’t matter as much.”