Cape Central Orchestra practiced for their concert as their cacophony of sound filled the room. The students played with passion and intent. The instructor, Andrew Hacay, silenced the playing with one swift movement of his wrist. He commented on the tempo, articulation, and intonation; he made a joke then they restarted the piece implementing the constructive criticism.

Central’s orchestra has two levels, concert which is more of a  beginner level class and symphonic for the more advanced players. Orchestra is “underrated” according to Sadie Reynolds, a junior violinist in Concert Orchestra. Reynolds notes that before she started playing she thought it would be “boring,” but it’s “exciting because of the different types of music.” Central’s orchestra has played almost every genre of music from Nirvana to Beethoven.

They also compete at a state and district level. “Trips are super fun (to Six Flags and Murry State University for competition) because they connect you with people in the orchestra you wouldn’t typically connect with,” said Reynolds.

The orchestra hosts several concerts a year that showcase a few pieces they work on for months. “Concerts are a display of our hard work, and it is cool to show our friends and family what we have been working on the past few weeks because you don’t get to do that with other things in school,” commented Reynolds.

Andrew Hacay has been the orchestra director for three years now. He defines the purpose of Central’s orchestra as “teaching students to work together to achieve the highest level of perfection possible.” He wants to “change the world through teaching a mindset to students that there is always more you can do to improve.” However, Central’s orchestra has struggled to get recognition within the school and the community.

Hacay observes that the orchestra “gets a bad reputation due to intonation [pitch] issues. When it comes to string instruments, it becomes difficult to achieve perfect pitch across all instruments sections.” Hacay thinks the intonation of the orchestra is significantly better since he started. Hacay said he loves “the overall dynamic of the class.” Hacay explained how, “it is nice to have a class set up where we can intensely drill music, stop for two minutes to joke around, then continue to intensely drill music.

Hacay’s quirky personality truly shines during rehearsals when he stops the rehearsal to tell one of his many stories, that usually end up with the whole class giggling, only to quickly change gears and continue practicing. He believes “it is important to be able to have a good time while learning.”

According to Reynolds and Hacay, the orchestra is fun and exciting, and more people should join. Hacay says, “the best way to help increase the mastery level of the entire class is to be able to expand the size of the orchestra large enough to add another orchestra class at the high school.” If a student is thinking about joining the orchestra, as Reynolds put it “ just do it, it changes your view on music as a whole.”