As senior Katherine Duerksen practices for her last district orchestra festival, she reflects on her past performances. Since she was a 5th grader, she said she’d excitedly anticipated reaching the difficulty level of a senior musician.

According to Duerksen, the pieces she and her peers will play consist of upbeat and exciting music.

“We try to pick pieces we think are going to inspire younger orchestra members to continue with orchestra,” Duerksen said.

According to orchestra conductor Miriam Edgar, the concert differs from others because of the students who play.

“All orchestra students in St. Louis Park perform in this concert,” Edgar said.

Duerksen said she enjoys playing in the all-district concert because she can see how much she’s improved by watching the elementary and middle school orchestra students play.

“It’s nice to go from the kid watching the high schoolers thinking ‘wow, that’s really cool,’ to being that person playing the advanced music,” Duerksen said.

According to Edgar, the district festival serves two major purposes.

“We think it gets the younger students really excited for orchestra and it’s important for the families to see the growth that happens from year to year because it’s a huge difference from fourth to 12th grade,” Edgar said.

According to Edgar, the festival brings students closer together.

“I think it’s also really great for program morale,” Edgar said. “At the high school we’ve expanded; now we’re three times bigger than we were when I started here.”

The district festival will take place at 7 p.m. April 7 in the old gym.