Weary fingers stiffen over steel strings, and mumbles of frustration echo throughout the room as foreheads lean against the wooden scrolls of their instruments when Jana Dalpez cuts the orchestra off.

Welcome to a daily rehearsal in Chamber Strings, where the only thing that gets you through each tiring yet worthwhile and entertaining day of class is the determined dedication to advancing further not only as an artist and a performer, but also together as an advanced orchestra.

The students who have made it into Chamber Strings need to be prepared to dedicate a generous chunk of time towards not only having the basics of a musical composition down, but to also strive for the closest thing to playing the piece flawlessly, thus leaving the audience with a sense of perfection. This means that students need to spend extra time practicing the fundamentals and techniques to bring forth exquisite interpretation of a composition.

While all of this sounds like brutal slave labor, creaking fingers and a sore lower back from practicing with such intensity actually brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction to a musician’s life.

As a member of the first year that Liberty has had an advanced orchestra, it’s so amazing to watch how everyone’s aspirations and goals as musicians have grown, and just how much more the people are willing to give of themselves to the orchestra so that our performances leave us with a feeling of excitement when we step out onto the stage instead of apprehension.

Building the groundwork for an advanced orchestra has been difficult, yet an incredibly worthwhile experience towards its students as we have had more involvement within our orchestra, such as leading more sectionals, conferencing with other sections, and having the opportunity to choose more of our music so that the students build up more of a passion for the music, rather than looking at a musical piece as an assignment.

Chamber Strings is looking forward to playing at an orchestra festival on March 24^th, 2015, and performing three pieces that they have worked incredibly hard at perfecting. One of these pieces is an original composition, meaning unedited and more difficult, by the famous composer Edward Elgar.