O'CONNOR: Most of us remember middle or high school music. The band kids and the orchestra kids were in their own little worlds that would almost never meet. But for the last 40 years in Salisbury, there's been a hidden gem where those walls come down. I sat down with Dr. Jeffrey Schoyen, who has been a professor at Salisbury University for 21 years and has become the heart behind the Salisbury Youth Orchestra. I'm Jenny O'Connor for Delmarva Public Media. Jeffrey Schoyen explained that in most schools, string and wind instruments are kept separate.
SCHOYEN: When kids are learning wind instruments, they usually learn the flat keys first. And when kids are using stringed instruments, they learn in sharp keys. In most school systems, they're just separate all the way through. The Youth Orchestra is an opportunity for kids to play with instruments that are out of their family of instruments.
O'CONNOR: The group contains about 35 to 40 students from 8th to 12th grade, who often remind Dr. Schoyen of his younger self.
SCHOYEN: I did the Atlantic Youth Symphony. This was in the '70s. I did sports, but that was during the week. But on Saturdays, I had an oasis. I could go and see a totally different group of kids who were interested in something else.
O'CONNOR: And now he gets to be a part of that oasis for the students in SYO and gets to experience the impact of music in real time. Former student Lila Quillen took her passion of music and composition into the "real world."
SCHOYEN: She came up and said, Dr. Schoyen, I write some music too. And in the youth orchestra, I believe Lila wrote, I would say, four or five pieces for the youth orchestra and we performed them. But anyway, Lila went on into music and she's now getting her doctorate at City University of New York and she's just has been very successful as a young composer.
O'CONNOR: But Dr. Schoyen is quick to point out that success isn't just about becoming a pro composer.
SCHOYEN: I think that love of music is probably the thing that I hope can carry on and if they join an orchestra in 20 years, it's great, it's a success, right?
SCHOYEN: Dr. Schoyen also pushes his students to stand on their own. Olivia Folke is a current high school senior who has leaned into her independence to stand on her own as the sole euphonium player.
FOLKE: Recently, last year and this year, since we have limited players, I don't have a section.
O'CONNOR: From the support of the university to the team of coaches who show up just out of the kindness of their hearts, this environment makes all the difference to students like Olivia, who have seen great improvements through their seven semesters with SYO.
FOLKE: Now I can just read all the key signatures from Sharp to Flat. It's helped out because now I am an offshore WVU band and I just got accepted to Towson. Every Thursday night at 7 pm, while the rest of campus might be winding down, these kids are in the music building for nearly two hours. And Dr. Schoyen doesn't take it easy on them either. He picks a few pieces every semester that he calls 'stretch pieces', which is music that pushes them out of their comfort zone.
SCHOYEN: Vivaldi was a Baroque composer and it's their phrasing and kind of a delicateness that it's new to them, that sort of phrasing, you know, rounding, doing things elegantly, you know... which they need to learn how to do.
O'CONNOR: Dr. Schoyen carries this passion for music throughout his days and hopes that the kids leave the semester with more than just better rhythm.
SCHOYEN: I hope that they leave with a love of music and a love of just the richness of music and how it relates to life. I'm hoping it gives them some skills to see a problem and break it down.
O'CONNOR: It's clear that the Salisbury Youth Orchestra is doing more than just teaching kids how to play in time. It's teaching them how to listen to one another and how to bridge the gap between different worlds.
SCHOYEN: The arts are kind, so everybody can do the arts. Everybody loves music.
O'CONNOR: Whether these students go on to the grand stages of New York or into a local biology lab, they carry the echo of these Thursday nights with them. If you want to hear that magic for yourself, the Salisbury Youth Orchestra's fall concert is Thursday, December 18th at 7:30 pm in Holloway Hall. For Delmarva Public Media, I'm Jenny O 'Connor.
