Sonny Kim and Lauren Sadataki walked out across the stage with the rest of the orchestra and looked out at the audience. They took their seats and began to warm up their violins. Sounds from the other musicians tuning their instruments along with the hushed whispers from the audience filled the auditorium. Kim expected to be nervous, but he was calm as the conductor emerged and lead the orchestra through their warm-ups. As the lights dimmed down and the crowd became quiet, Sadataki felt her nerves melt away as she focused on the music and used the pressure to fuel her performance. The two violinists played in harmony, knowing that they had been rehearsing for hours every Sunday and in private lessons to make this performance perfect.

Revere High School juniors Kim and Sadataki joined the Akron Youth Symphony (AYS) four years and three years ago, respectively, as violinists. Before AYS they were both members of the Akron Youth Philharmonic, an orchestra for younger children. A large group of about seventy teenagers makes up the symphony which contains brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion sections. The symphony, lead by Jacob Sustaita, allows teenagers with a strong interest in and aptitude for music to come together to learn and perform challenging classical pieces from all time periods. The group meets every Sunday from 1:15 pm to 4:15 pm at University of Akron. Sadataki elaborated on why she feels participating in AYS is a good opportunity for amateur classical musicians.

“You get to meet new people from all around Ohio, not just the Akron area, who are all interested in the same music and at the same level as you are, rather than a school orchestra where [there are different levels of skill] so you can’t really play the more difficult pieces. Also, it’s really nice to play famous classical pieces, so you can say you played it, which is a big accomplishment,” Sadataki said.

This past year, the symphony gained a new conductor. Sustaita, a violist and seasoned orchestra leader, has changed the way AYS has organized the musicians in the past. In previous years, each musician would audition first for a spot in the orchestra, and if he or she made it in, a second audition would determine the specific seat in the orchestra. This year, however, Sustaita has been practicing moving the players around so that they can experience all the different parts of the music rather than confining them to a single part.

“I like to provide my players with as many possible options for playing in an orchestra.  For me, this means not always playing in the same spot or chair.  We learn so much as musicians by playing in the front, middle, and back of sections.  Each spot in the orchestra has its challenges…. This helps them get ready for college and professional ensembles where they will probably be sitting toward the back, at least at first,” Sustaita said.

The symphony plays different types of classical pieces, spanning several different time periods. In their most recent concert, they performed classical dance music from different countries. Sustaita explained that this year’s orchestra possesses great musical maturity and the ability to handle pieces that would generally be difficult for other youth orchestras to master. He noted that he is very pleased to have the chance to be leading an Akron orchestra.

“For conductors, we often do not have the luxury of being able to choose what city or symphony we would like to conduct.  It would be like studying medicine and then just saying, ‘I want to be a doctor in New York.’  We all have to go where the open jobs are.  I saw the Akron position open and jumped on it immediately,” Sustaita said.

When given a new piece, Maestro Sustaita expects that the musicians will take it and learn it in their own time, so that when the group meets, they can work on putting it all together. Sadataki explained that like many others, she has a private violin instructor to help her learn the new music.

“You are expected to learn [the music] beforehand. You want to take it to your private teacher so that they can work out difficult fingerings and different bowings – for a violinist – that you don’t understand.  Then in rehearsal as an orchestra you can really hear how it fits together,  so you can add the dynamics and really emotional parts to the music rather than playing it and trying to learn it as you go,” Sadataki said.

For some rehearsals, professional musicians from the Akron Symphony will attend and coach the younger musicians in AYS, teaching them the music and helping them with their playing. Kim elaborated on how the orchestra will split into sectionals to learn from a teacher from the Akron Symphony.

“In a sectionals rehearsal, they will take the whole orchestra apart into sections. Brass and woodwinds separate, and then we will have basses go one direction, and then we have the cellos, violas and violins. [Then] we would have adults from the Akron Symphony that play those instruments come in and go over it with us. We have sectionals about once every four weeks,” Kim said.

The symphony generally puts on five to seven concerts per year, along with some of the musicians from AYS performing in the Akron Holiday Pops Concert with members from the Akron Symphony. A couple of years ago, they backed up instrumentalist Todd Rundgren.

Currently, the Akron Youth Symphony busies itself preparing for their concert with the Akron Youth Philharmonic in March. They will continue to rehearse under the guidance of Sustaita to put out the best final product in concert. Kim and Sadataki look forward to the rewarding feeling that comes after they have finally finished a piece and can look out at the applauding audience.