Once a year, the concert orchestra tours different places around the United States for a weekend as a way to share their music. This year the orchestra is going to St. Louis, Missouri from April 9-12. On tour, they will share their talents with schools who may learn something from them and vice versa.

These tours are meant as a way for a musical group to bond over their music, however for many seniors, this is their last real time to bond with fellow classmates and musicians.

Senior Brady Nahkala said, “There is something about being stuck in a confined atmosphere with 60 people for four days that brings you together.”

The orchestra will be sharing their music in many different ways throughout their tour.

“We will be playing at different colleges and high schools as well as a performance at Lutheran Senior Services,” senior Sam Thueson said, “Our last night there we will hear the Saint Louis Symphony perform.”

Tour is not only a way for them to share their music, it is also a way for them to hear and learn techniques and other ways of performing. Also, a way for them to get a different perspective of the music they have been practicing already.

“We will be doing a few clinics, one at Luther College and one with another director in St. Louis,” Nahkala said.

After hard work is done, the orchestra will do some sightseeing and have some leisure time.

Senior Kaija Olson said, “One of the exciting parts is just shopping and touring in St. Louis with a bunch of really cool music kids.”

Putting a tour together requires a lot of work and effort but in the end the results are satisfying.

“I am looking forward to taking all the effort and hard work we have put into our music on to the road to share with others,” Thueson said.

For many of the students, music has been a way for them to make friends and create a family like bond.

“I think my favorite part of touring is how close you get to everyone,” Olson said. “I mean you are stuck on buses for four days with the same people so you get to know them like family.”

As the spring tours are the last for seniors in orchestra, they look forward to them more than they had in previous years.

Olson said, “I think this tour will definitely be different from the other orchestra tours because it is my last one before I graduate so it is cool to be a senior but at the same time it is sad.

Many seniors enjoy their seniority, but at the same time they do not want it to end.

“I have gotten to know so many people, it is going to be like eating bitter sweet chocolate,” Olson added.

Although the tour means the senior’s time here is slowly coming to an end, they continue to look forward to the tour because they get to connect with the others through music.

“The part I am most looking forward to is just spending the time with the orchestra, it is a fun community to be in,” Nahkala said, “Last year the tour was the turning point for me in terms of really connecting with everyone in the ensemble, it is great to be able to relax away from school and get to know everyone even better.”

Even though the year is winding down, the seniors in orchestra will surely have something positive to take away from their experience when they leave.