Students Aren't Reaching Cadenza in Quest for Orchestra

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Five Northville middle school students are just tuning up in their campaign for an orchestra program at their school.

Thwarted so far in their campaign, the five – Nicole Dobson, Vanessa Wojtalewicz, Fiona Berg, Grace Lapinski and Liliah Seluk – have appealed to Northville Public Schools Superintendent Mary Kay Gallagher to use her influence in establishing an orchestra, Hometownlife.com reports.

In a letter to the superintendent, they explained their campaign to bring a student orchestra to Northville started as an eighth-grade social studies assignment. The students were asked to develop a project that would solve a community problem.

“The strings in the school district will benefit children who play strings outside of school,” they wrote.

“First off, The Northville community needs an orchestra because many of the students have limited options, such as choir, art or band. Many young string musicians are lacking opportunity that students that pursue other interests have,” the letter continued. “This is unfair and unjust, and may cause string musicians to lean towards other communities that already offer in school string orchestras, such as Novi, Farmington and Livonia.”

They quoted Donna Swoboda, concert mistress for the Orchard Lake Philharmonic Society, who said that “to be well rounded, competitive and on par with neighboring districts, Northville needs a strings program.”

The students made fiscal arguments in favor of establishing the program, and said the lack of an orchestra denies students the right to showcase their talents. Additionally, an orchestra would expose students to instruments and genres that may be foreign to them, help students sharpen their math and problem-solving skills, and expose students to different world cultures.

The students had harsh words for the Northville school board, who they said have “treated orchestra as a joke.”

“The District pretends to have a strings program, but it is a lie they hide behind,” they wrote.

They quoted Dr. Reza Rahmanii of Northville, who said she took her three children out of the school district because it lacked an orchestra program.

According to the Hometownlife.com report, the district isn’t likely to approve the request due to financial constaints, a demand for more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and language classes, smaller classes and technology infrastructure improvements.