I really enjoy the youth orchestra because we get to play concert repertoire music with strings and things like that. That's really fun.

We want to make the orchestra more accessible to people who have never been to see a live concert to come and experience one of the best orchestras in North America.

I was walking back from gym class one day and I saw a fence that was really dilapidated. I asked (Pearl River Principal) Mr. (Michael) Winkler about rebuilding it and he loved the idea since we would do it for free so he wouldn't have to use school funds to make the repairs.

They have all interviewed students for Student of the Year before, so they really helped me out.

The concert hall is the instrument of the orchestra. We're a producing institution. We build what we make.

when you come to a show do you feel the same thing that i feel when i’m on that stage? i mean, i know you’re not standing on the stage… but surely you can feel the same energy that i’m feeling, to some degree. it’s so much more powerful than all the trivial nonsense that people chalk our band up to be. it means something great and it feels empowering. it’s the grace of knowing that we can all totally suck and be a little messed up and then stand in a room with thousands of other people who are exactly the same way, no matter how dressed up they look on the outside, and we can be broken all the same.