Senior Melvin Romero has dreamed of performing with a symphony ever since he first heard a recording of Metallica featuring San Francisco Symphonic Orchestra when he was in the 6th grade.
“Symphony music has more contrast and potential for beauty,” Romero said.
Romero’s dream came true when he was selected to play trombone with the Austin Symphony in mid January in the Akins Theater. He and a few of his fellow orchestra and band students such as senior Jesus Aldape who plays the violin and senior Jeremiah Silguero who plays the oboe were selected to play with the symphony.
“I feel very honored and a bit surprised that I was selected to perform with them,” Silguero said. “To play with professionals was a great experience. It was an opportunity that doesn’t come around often.”
Aldape said he was very grateful and excited to play with the orchestra because not everybody has the chance to.
Orchestra teacher Cathy Bennett picked all of the orchestra students that performed with the Austin Symphony.
“I chose the orchestra students. They consisted of my CHAMPS Quartet. They all deserved the opportunity to perform,” Bennett said. “(I’m) proud to showcase our school and many talented musicians.”
Bennett also gave positive feedback on the whole event and how her musicians carried themselves through out the performance.
“They did fantastic. I was so proud of how they handled themselves. They definitely carried themselves as classy, professional musicians,” Bennett said “My favorite part of the performance was watching our Akins students perform and for me to be part of the audience.”
Conductor Peter Bay also praised the students’ performances.
“The students were fabulous. They were very attentive and reacted to the music very well. They were very well prepared,” Bay said. “Akins is a great school.”
One of the special audience members there was Dr. Charles Akins he said he was impressed with the students’ musical abilities.
“I thought the performance was outstanding. It was a joy for me to see those youngsters come out. They look so professional and they look so good and I’m so proud of them,” Akins said.
In addition to the experience that the performers gained, the event also opened up cultural doors to the students in the audience he said.
“I think that this is an excellent opportunity for the kids to appreciate the cultural values of school and learning to appreciate all forms of culture and all forms of music. Akins said and I hope that the Austin Symphony will continue to do this through out our school system.