Who knew a talented violist was in our midst named Richard Millett?
Millett was one of 17 violists who were selected after auditioning for National High School Honors Orchestra and he placed sixth chair. NHSHO was held in Santa Clara, California, this year and entailed playing high level music with very advanced players.
This year the orchestra played Mahler’s “First Symphony” (sometimes called “The Titan”) under the direction of Raymond Harvey.
“My personal favorite movement was the final movement, “Stürmisch bewegt – Energisch” (meaning “Stormily agitated – Energetic”),” said Millett. “As the title would suggest, it’s very turbulent and energetic, making it fun to play (though it was easily the hardest movement of the symphony to play).”
Millett was one of nine Missouri students who attended—eight of whom were from the St. Louis area. Millett decided to audition after CHS orchestra teacher Julie Hoffman told him about the orchestra and found he had previously played the required solo piece for the audition.
Millett also attended Missouri All-State Orchestra this year and found small but significant differences between the orchestras.
“Musically, All-State and NHSHO are actually not all that disparate,” Millett said. “Both had a lot of talented players this year and successfully performed very high-level music. NHSHO was still the better orchestra though, probably just by virtue of drawing from a much larger pool of musicians. We spent significantly less time at NHSHO dealing with basic issues like intonation than at All-State and a lot more time on little musical nuances.”
Not only musically was All-state different than NHSHO, but also experience and schedule wise. He found that rehearsals were longer and more frequent at NHSHO and found the group of musicians who attended was more diverse.
“Certain regions do tend to be more represented than others – Missouri, New Jersey, and California come to mind as having a lot of people that went – but you still get the chance to meet a more diverse group of people than at all-state,” Millett said.
Overall they were both fun but different orchestras.
“Basically, you get less free time,” Millett said, “but the whole experience feels a bit more polished.”
Although Millett doesn’t think the experience changed his perspective on music radically, he feels like it was a good reminder to what he previously had been taught.
“One of the main lessons I re-learned from NHSHO was that a good musician has to try and make even the most repetitive or seemingly dull sections of the music interesting,” Millett said. “It’s not enough just to play the notes on the page.”
Millett encourages others to try out as well.
“I would definitely encourage people who enjoy playing music to try out,” Millett said. “It’s a lot of fun if you are friends with other people who are trying out, since you get to spend a week with those people. The orchestra is also extremely high quality and consists of lots of interesting people.”
Millett thought that getting behind a week in school was a drawback and the fact that the school doesn’t pay nearly as much as it does for all state, but overall the experience was worth it. Millett certainly has plenty to be proud of for his achievement.
“Still, it was a great experience and if someone’s both a good musician and a diligent student, they should definitely send in an audition tape.”