Mar. 25, 2024 -- Being about a 10 minute drive away from University Circle provides CH-UH’s students with the opportunity to visit world-renowned museums and attend performances from outstanding professional music ensembles. And for members of Heights High’s Instrumental Music Department; they had the unique chance to see The Cleveland Orchestra (TCO) rehearse Sibelius’ Second Symphony.

On March 21, the band and orchestra students took a field trip to Severance Hall to sit in on a morning rehearsal for "America's finest" symphony orchestra as they prepared the program for their concert series from March 21 through 23. Conducted by Dalia Stasevska, the program also featured Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus or “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra” and Black composer Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater with vocal performance by Josefina Maldonado, mezzo-soprano.

The high school musicians witnessed first hand that putting in the time and effort to practice one’s craft does not end once you join a professional ensemble and that a musician must always strive to improve. They were also able to meet the professional musicians after the rehearsal, including two members of The Cleveland Orchestra who have ties to Cleveland Heights High School.

Richard King, French hornist for TCO since 1988, is a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the father of Amelia, a senior and cellist in the Heights High Symphony. Michael Miller, a trumpeter for TCO since 2006, graduated from Cleveland Heights High School and is also a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The Instrumental Music Department will hold their Spring Finale Concerts on Thursday, April 25 and Friday, April 26 at 7:00 p.m. in the Heights High Auditorium. The Thursday concert will feature the Philharmonic Strings and Concert Band and Orchestra. Friday’s concert will feature the Heights High Symphony, Symphonic Winds, and Senior Soloist Sophie Muller who will perform The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.