Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras closed the curtain on May 5, flooding the room with music at the Hays Performing Arts Center. It was the longest concert to date.

“I’m not sure how long it was, but we played 5 pieces and it took a while,” senior Grace Stoddard said. “It goes to show how far we’ve come in the past two years.”

Johnson’s orchestra program started at the beginning of last year, and this was the first year the school competed in the University Interscholastic League [UIL]. They earned sweepstakes and will qualify to go as a varsity orchestra for the 2025-2026 school year.

“Orchestra acts as a creative outlet where kids express themselves and their individuality while also learning to collaborate and make music with others,” Stoddard said.

One piece they played was Terry Riley’s experimental piece in C. It contains around 12 “cells” of music, which each student repeated for what they believed to be 30 seconds.

“I enjoyed getting to repeat each cell because with each repetition, I got to experiment with playing it in different ways, and in different combinations with what the people around me were playing,” junior violinist Hazel Barksdale said.

Next year, the program will be adding a third orchestra. They will also get to practice in their own room as a part of the new fine arts construction.

“I am looking forward to the program growing even larger,” Barksdale said.