Table of Contents
Andrew Shin of Henrico, a senior at Maggie Walker Governor's School, recently became the first violist ever from the Commonwealth of Virginia to participate in the All National Honor Ensemble Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra is an elite group of high school musicians selected from their respective regional and all-state orchestras across the nation, who assembled for rehearsals and a performance Nov. 29 at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida.
From the time he was a freshman and earned first chair in Central Regional Orchestra, Andrew has been winning honors for his musical achievements. As a sophomore, he earned first chair in Senior Regional Orchestra, and as a junior he earned 9th chair in All State orchestra.
It was at the All State event that a guest conductor's remark inadvertently goaded Andrew to go further. When the conductor told students they should make the best of the opportunity, because "this is the farthest that most of you will go in terms of an honors ensemble,” Andrew took it as a challenge.
“I didn’t like that,” Andrew recalled later. “I didn’t want it to stop there.” And he began to practice to audition for the All National orchestra. He considered his audition recording he submitted a long shot, and had little expectation of qualifying. But while at a camp with friends, he received a text message from his mother – with a screenshot of the email congratulating him on his acceptance.
The seating audition was the hardest he had ever known, and again he sent it in with little expectation of doing well. He considered himself lucky just to play with such a high-calibre orchestra, even if he ended up seating at the back of his section.
But when he arrived at the first rehearsal of the event and couldn't find his name on a chair in the back rows, he grew nervous. “They don’t tell you what seat you got beforehand," he said. “The closer you are to the conductor, obviously, the better she can see you not do well.”
He was shocked to see his name on the first stand and to realize that he had earned first chair. But once he got over the shock, sheer terror set in. “My throat closed up; I wanted to throw up.”
Calling his parents at the hotel, he told them he wanted to go home. "I don’t want to do this. I can’t do this. I don’t deserve this,” he said.
He soon got over his initial feelings of incompetence, however, and went on to enjoy spending time at Epcot Center with his new friends from the orchestra, as well as the remaining rehearsals and performance.
“That last performance, I think it was kind of sad for everyone at the end," he said. "Because, you know, this amazing experience is over; we all have to go back home to do all this make-up work.
"It just doesn’t get better than having that experience.”
