While almost everyone enjoys the soothing sound of an orchestral melody, not many realize how the extensive work goes into producing such beautiful music. Strolling Strings has been an orchestral club offered at Ladue for years. The concept of strolling orchestras dates back to the gypsy violinists who entertained all over Europe in the last century. For students, the club offers student motivation to pursue their musical passion outside of the band room as well as incentive to succeed and please an audience.
“The overall experience was a huge success,” orchestra director Jeffrey Lindhosrt said. “I was very pleased with our professional poise and excellent musicianship at our stroll event. I’m sure there will be another trip in the future.”
The student musicians range anywhere from ninth grade to twelfth grade and are given the opportunity for an audition during eighth grade. While most students audition for the purpose of enjoyment and extracurricular participation, the membership of Strolling Strings reap a lot more benefits than solely academic. Members simply enjoy the atmosphere.
“Strolling Strings is fun,” junior Max Schindler said. “There is a great peer group, paired with good music, as well as fun opportunities I have gotten to join in on such as the Atlanta trip where we recently traveled. Strolling Strings has not traveled outside of St. Louis in over four years, so this was cool.”
The group performed for St. Vincent DePaul in Atlanta, GA Oct. 15. The musicians were asked to play for the annual dinner of the event sponsors, and the response from the crowd was vibrant and everyone seemed to be pleased by the music.
“The response to the crowd was really positive,” sophomore Claire Paddock said. “They seemed like they really appreciated us playing for them, and for us traveling to be able to attend the event was a really successful trip, and we even got to do fun things such as visit the Coca- Cola Company of Atlanta and the Martin Luther King Museum.”
While their efforts paid off, the hard work and time the students put in is extremely rigorous. Not only does the group require individual commitment, but also teamwork to succeed.
“Strolling Strings is a lot like playing a team sport,” senior Cecelia Vetter said. “The whole group has to work together and trust each other to make sure we stay on beat.”
Many of the students also plan to pursue music in college. Strolling Strings teaches fundamental discipline in cognition with personal as well as group achievement that motivates the musicians to want to excel through their instruments.
“Practicing and learning the music on your own is very time consuming, and especially the first time around it takes a lot of work but after that it is not as bad,” Schindler said. “With investing time in memorizing the music, it makes our job easier later when we have to play in front of an audience. While Strolling Strings is a huge commitment, I would suggest eighth graders to consider trying out because it is a fun group that everyone enjoys playing their instruments together.”
Strolling Strings plans to perform two to three “strolls,” or performances, in the following months. The money contributed to the club will go towards the Ladue orchestra program.
“This was a special event that came up,” Lindhorst said. “And this is a very talented group of students deserving to go on a trip for sure.”
