I joined the New York Youth Symphony during its 52nd season, when I was 13 years old. Since then, my Sundays have become a routine to look forward to throughout the week. True, there are some Sundays when I’m not particularly enthusiastic about the hour-and-half commute to the city. But when I step into rehearsal, I forget all about those little stresses of life and simply look forward to playing violin with friends and learning more about classical music.

New York Youth Symphony has been an important stepping stone in my musical career. Looking back to my first ensemble experience in second grade, I remember being unable to follow the music and the conductor. A friend’s mother sat next to me and helped me write in the fingerings for all the notes. Just a few years ago, I started my first cycle at NYYS, faking over half the notes as we ran through the entirety of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite in one sitting during the first rehearsal! Throughout the past 3 years, I have learned what it takes to meet the expectations of this talented youth symphony.

This season, having been given the opportunity to take on the role of concertmaster of the New York Youth Symphony, I feel great excitement about NYYS, and its potential growth under the new music director, Mike Repper, with more generations of musicians to come.