Word: hro
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...hoodie. Its fabric has that never-been-worn fluff to it that makes all new sweatshirts a joy to wear. But it’s more than the shirt’s fuzzy warmth that makes it cozy. This is no ordinary Harvard sweatshirt. It’s an HRO hoodie, and in wearing it, I affirm my complicated love for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra...
This is the first year I’ve been an HRO member. For three years, I have been a dabbler, never pledging full allegiance to any one group. As a percussionist, I am called upon by seemingly endless musical ensembles to participate in their performances, because there are simply not enough of us to go around here. With never more than about 10 players on campus for the dozens of performing groups, we all get endless e-mails from music directors, managers and conductors. Names are passed around, and eventually you are part of the standard list...
This is the first time at Harvard I’ve felt truly invested in a musical group. Freshman and sophomore years I played in and managed THUD, The Harvard University Drummers, but I was never as attached to that group as I feel to HRO. Perhaps this is a function of the fact that, to me, a symphony is inherently more stirring than a percussion quintet. Emotion runs higher and deeper with a group this large and with works of greater scope...
...other night I called my high school music teacher for, of all things, castanet recommendations. He’s the one who encouraged me to switch to percussion in eighth grade when the flute got boring, and I was proud to tell him about HRO. “So you’re playing in the orchestra now?” he asked, knowing I had not been very serious about musical involvement in college. I told him yes, and that I was loving it, happy to note that we are the oldest continually performing symphony orchestra in the country...
...Indeed, HRO is a group full of amazing talent, peppered with players who will go professional, with players who could have gone to Julliard, players who spend hours upon hours in practice rooms. Music is past, present and future for these Harvard students, people who are wholly occupied with their playing, but wanting more than the conservatory experience...