Youth orchestra starting small, setting sights on symphony

Formed in May, group entertains Sunday at Country Club Mall

Kevin Spradlin

LAVALE — Allegany High School freshman Chloe Bonifacio said she joined the new Tri-State Youth Orchestra in an effort to get more practice time with a violin pressed to her chin.

“I like playing,” said the delicate 14-year-old. “It’s just really fun. I just started (with the orchestra) this summer. I wanted to get better. I just want to improve my technique.”

Under the direction of Jeff Avey, conductor and local music teacher, Bonifacio and nearly two dozen other students from fourth grade through high school are doing just that. The group formed in May and meets each Sunday for two-hour practices. That’s in addition to public performance such as the one Sunday in the food court at Country Club Mall in LaVale.

For nearly an hour, Bonifacio and her fellow strings specialists entertained an enthusiastic crowd. If one closed the eyes, it could just as easily have been Carnegie Hall — albeit with different acoustics. For the 50 or more people listening, the venue seemed to matter little.

The ensemble’s summertime patriotic theme carried nicely with listeners on Sunday, about three weeks before Veterans Day. Songs performed included “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Honor & Glory,” and Avey had military veterans stand up before playing the hymns of the four branches of the U.S. armed forces.

Kari Batina, Tri-State Youth Orchestra president, said there wasn’t a group in the area that served the range of students playing stringed instruments. Her son Nick is a sixth-grade violinist at Mount Savage Middle School. Avey taught Nick Batina privately. Kari Batina said she and her husband, Jim Batina, and a handful of other parents talked with Avey about starting a new group.

“We needed this,” Kari Batina said.

Avey told listeners the group ultimately wants to “turn ourselves into a symphony ... as soon as, maybe some of you, can refer more students to us.”

Avey said the group began “as a result fo a rather healthy conversation of adults and myself ... I’m a kid at heart. We hope to double our size and perhaps double our notoriety.”

Amanda Carney, too, is a kid at heart. And, perhaps, an ordinary child — with a talent to play the cello and a desire to play more often than most. Even on Sunday, when she otherwise would have been at a friend’s birthday party. The Mount Savage Middle School eighth grade student has played cello for five years. In addition to the weekly practices with Tri-State Youth Orchestra, Carney plays three times a week at school.

In fact, all of the students are members of their schools’ orchestras. Most of them have garnered All County Orchestra honors. Some will participate at the state level next month, around the time of the group’s next performance on Nov. 14 at Windsor Hall in Cumberland.

Bonifacio said she hopes her music will help take her places. Though just a freshman, she said she might study law and hopes to attend an Ivy League school, possibly Harvard.

For more information on the Tri-State Youth Orchestra, visit www.tsyorchestra.org or e-mail tsyorchestra@yahoo.com.

Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.