The AFA students, dressed in their best suits and dresses, are sitting in their designated seats before the audience: the strings with the strings, the winds with the winds, and so forth. The spacious University of Houston Opera House is darkened as the lights are dimmed. Only the students on the stage are glowing, and the anticipation rises in both the audience and the musicians as they await the beginning of their first concert. Whispers are heard in the audience, but as soon as the conductor steps out from behind the curtain and onto his platform, the whole auditorium becomes dead silent. He motions the orchestra to start Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 5.”

The different instruments merge harmoniously and after several minutes of rigorous playing, the students stand and bow. The audience is overwhelmed with the dramatic close, and before long, a loud rumble of applause is echoing from the walls of the opera house.

Senior Evonne T. and sophomore Omar E. are among the students who stand, holding their instruments and facing the audience with pride.

“When we finished the last movement of the first concert, the fact that it was really a majestic and beautiful piece, I felt like I had accomplished something,” Omar said. “It was really memorable for me because I realized that I can do this, that I do have the capability [to play this music.]”

The American Festival for the Arts offers a summer fine arts program, and this past summer, several students chose to audition and participate in the conservatory orchestra. Evonne’s decision to audition was influenced by some of her peers.

“It’s basically five weeks of the summer, and they host three concerts,” Evonne said. “We rehearse everyday with other people from the surrounding Houston area in a full orchestra setting. I was excited [that I made it] because Jishnu [G.], Morgan [B.], and Alex [I.] have been to it before. They said it’s a really good experience because the playing is really good and you play really hard and good music that you would never play at Kerr. I was excited to make it because it gives me the opportunity to play during the summer.”

For Omar, he looked forward to having something to do during the summer and embellishing his college resumé with the summer program.

“[I decided to participate] because I had nothing to do over the summer, and I knew that it would be good for my college application,” Omar said. “They have very good recommendations for colleges and also because it was just good music, a good way to educate yourself and further yourself in a musical career.”

During this five-week period, the students from the Houston metro area played in three hosted concerts. The students rehearsed for two weeks for each concert and according to Evonne, the whole experience was challenging.

Like Evonne, Omar believed that the program was also quite difficult.

“It was pretty hard at first because the first few weeks; it was like, ‘I’m not used to this,’” he said. “At first I was thinking about faking the concert, but then after a while, you’re like, ‘It can’t be that hard,’ so you kind of get encouraged to practice when you see people get the hang of it. Because if they can get the hang of it, I can probably get the hang of it too, so from there, once you’ve conquered the first concert, everything else just gets easier and easier.”

Band instructor Jeff Sutherland believes that the competitive setting in AFA pushes the students to do their best.

“This program has fine-tuned many of our finest musicians and is a great benefit to the students of Kerr,” Sutherland. “It gives them a competitive advantage by performing and learning from some of the area’s best teachers. They also understand better the level of players outside their school. If you’re the best one at your school and no one challenges you, you can have the tendency to be satisfied with your progress.”

Aside from learning difficult music, Omar also enjoyed learning about the variety of music.

“I’ve experienced different kinds of music,” he said. “I’ve always thought that music was sort of concrete and one way, but I have opened up to a whole other side of music that I didn’t even know was there. We were opened up to another kind of perspective on music. We played anything from Mozart to a lot of contemporary composers like Philip Glass and John Adams.”

Omar believes that this program has made him a better musician, and even though the summer and the program are over, he plans to audition again next year, hoping to achieve his dream of having a career related to music.

“[AFA] was cool because you learned how to manage music well, like the overall picture and not just your part,” Omar said. “Anybody can play notes but it takes a real musician to play music.

“Personally, I want to be a music composer or a conductor of some sort, but I’m hoping to get into some kind of good college.”

Sutherland looks forward to seeing how the students will advance musically.

“Our hope is that students become life long-lovers of music,” Sutherland said. “After that is accomplished, there is no other reward than to see these students join the music world in college, performing or the biggest flattery of all: teaching.”