As a form of recruitment for students transitioning from middle school to high school, the Benson Orchestra and Jazz band went and performed for the band and orchestra classes at both Monroe and Nathan Hale Middle School on Apr. 23. The groups played a selection of songs, and after playing, they had a discussion with the students, allowing them to ask questions, and describing the opportunities given at Benson.

“Even though it was just playing for middle schoolers, I was a little bit nervous,” sophomore Eh Dah said.

Many of the orchestra and band students enjoyed playing for the middle school students for their own reasons, some of Dah’s reasons being that she got out of school, and she got to spend time doing something she loves, which is playing music for others.

“The first time we made some mistakes while playing,” Dah said.

With this being the first tour in years, there were bound to be problems, one of those being the jazz band having a rough time moving the equipment, junior Mataya Mallory had stated that she wished they had a cart to make the moving process easier.

“They looked really interested in the orchestra,” Mallory said. “ because they could see how important it is to the orchestra students and that the orchestra is really big and advanced.”

Dah felt like the middle school students were curious about the songs they were preforming for them.

“They looked really excited because the orchestra was cool,” Mallory said.

Both Dah and Mallory are confident that the recruitment was a success and that they’ll see some of those middle schoolers in the Benson Band or Orchestra next school year.

“It was really fun playing with the jazz band and orchestra,” Mallory said.