Orchestra program a true ‘GEM’

Freshmen who enter the school’s award-winning music program may not always be quite up to par with the department’s high standards. On the other hand, most upperclassmen have gone a long way toward mastering their craft.

Thanks to a program called the Great Ensemble of Musicians (GEM), these upperclassmen are now grooming younger musicians.

Founded by seniors Danny Gao and Daniel Eem, GEM aims to help underclassmen, especially freshmen, sharpen their skills in their respective instruments. The program has been a part of the school’s orchestra and band since last spring.

The program operates with tutor-student lists being posted on Facebook each week, and during Tutorials, tutors go to various music rooms, meet their students there and begin practicing and working on whatever difficulties the student may have.

Gao, the concertmaster of Saratoga Strings, said that in addition to fostering improvement, the program aims to build closer relationships between older and younger students in the  music program.

“I enjoy working with the freshmen and getting to know them,” Gao said. “Especially because freshman orchestra is separate from upperclassmen orchestra, it really helps build a better music community.”

In addition to the underclassmen who benefit from the program, Gao thinks upperclassmen also learn and improve from the teaching they are doing.

The program is not mandatory in either band or orchestra, but students are encouraged to voluntarily sign up to teach or be taught.

Eem, section leader of the alto saxophones in the marching band, said that they saw that it was possible to start the program from observing another club they were in, the Helping Hands Tutoring Club.

Once founded, the program became popular with many upperclassmen, with 20-25 tutors teaching 40-50 students each week.

Senior violinist Daniel Lee said that GEM is fun and not too time consuming. He also said that he’s happy to partake in the program since he sees that it benefits the freshmen.

“[The current upperclassmen] could’ve benefitted a lot from [a program like GEM] if there was a program freshman year,” Lee said.

Sophomore cellist Ian Kim joined the program this year and is ecstatic to be a part of training the freshmen.

“I am excited to work with freshmen and share my knowledge so that they can be even better than me,” Kim said.

Sophomores like Kim are the ones who will be continuing the program and help it to grow, leaving the founders feeling that it can only expand from here.

“I can only see this program becoming stronger and better in the future,” Eem said. “There are so many great musicians and potential leaders within GEM right now, and I am confident that they will be able to take this program to new heights.”