As a junior majoring in international relations and global economy, and applied mathematics, Kyndred Lewis does not sound like the type to be in the Student Symphony Orchestra. He grew up and fell in love with playing the horn that even if he was not a music major, he wanted a space to continue making music.
Now, after being in the club for three years, he will be the club’s next orchestra manager, handling all the club’s internal affairs for the upcoming academic year.
“The audience was very passionate and they loved the piece,” Wang said. “That meant a lot to me.”
SSO prides itself on being one of the few clubs on campus where you do not have to be a Thornton major to continue to play music. Students of all musical backgrounds and skill levels are welcome.
“This is not the symphony where you have to have professionalism, [wear] concert black, sit there prettily without any clapping in between movements,” Lewis said. “This is a place where [members] can have fun…and have that space as a creative outlet.”
While it is not uncommon for a student to join the club with a classical background, Lewis said a lot of students, including himself, got into music through more contemporary means, like jazz or John Williams’ famous scores.
This year’s cohort is the biggest the club has ever been, now having over 150 active members. Club president Celine Chen, a piano and flute performance senior, attributes this to their leadership pushing for more “fun,” yet still challenging pieces.
Last semester, instead of focusing on the usual Beethoven scores, their annual fall concert featured John Williams’ iconic opening to “Jurassic Park.” Most recently, the club had introduced its first jazz chamber performance in the USC Village, highlighting a small group of members who grew up with big band jazz.
“‘Fun’ is this semester’s theme,” Mithrander Wang, a senior majoring in music composition and SSO’s musical director and conductor said.
Though Lewis admitted that the club was not always like this. During his freshman year, he described the club as “very professional,” focusing purely on classical music and leaving little room for experimentation. As a result, Lewis said members were losing their passion for the club.
Still, when Lewis took a break from the club for mental health reasons, he quickly realized he missed making music. He returned to pursue leadership, asking himself how he can make the club into something people – regardless of musical knowledge – want to go to.
“I wanted to run for orchestra manager because…I think it’s really encouraging to non-Thornton majors to see that you don’t have to be a music major to be involved in music,” Lewis said.
Chen also said that, during her freshman year, she barely knew her clubmates. The only time she could talk to her members was during rehearsals. When she joined the executive board, it became important for her to distinguish the club, not as an orchestra, but as a community within an orchestra. She now prioritizes activities like retreat and movie nights to make the 100-person club feel less frightening for someone wanting to make friends.
SSO’s assistant orchestra manager Cynthia Liu, an electrical and computer engineering sophomore who helps with internal affairs, said she did not expect to meet her life-long friends at their retreat. She originally joined because she simply loved classical music; she just so happened to meet her first college friends in it too. She said that while the club may continue to grow in skill and size, the community stays constant.
“I chose to join e-board because the club did so much for me my freshman year, and it just felt like my way to give back,” Liu said.
Before every concert, the club also makes it a habit to host competitions where anyone in the community can audition to be a soloist for a concerto, or for music composers to submit their own scores for the club to perform. Wang said one of his most memorable moments in SSO was when his score won their composition competition. Not only did he witness an orchestra play his piece live for the first time but he also had the chance to conduct it.
“The audience was very passionate and they loved the piece,” Wang said. “That meant a lot to me.”
As the club is entirely student-run, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to be done to put on a show. While there are only 13 official e-board positions, regular members can get involved in any of the five committees (artistic direction, public relations, social, library, and financial) managed by the board.
The SSO community does not stop with students, Liu clarified. During her tenure, she hoped to establish a stronger connection with the greater Los Angeles community, taking the club’s performances outside campus. Aside from hosting their first jazz chamber in the Village, the club also partnered with the school of cinematic arts students to co-produce a film. In it, SSO both scores and stars in the piece, exposing the club to a bigger audience, even those who may not be the orchestra-viewing kind.
For their upcoming spring concert on April 26, audiences can expect nostalgic tunes from “My Neighbor Totoro” and heart-racing excitement from the original “Star Wars” soundtrack. Wang said that every part of their concert, including their classical pieces, are filled with excitement.
“People want to feel whimsy, people want fun,” Lewis said, “and I feel like [this concert] is representative of our community as a whole.”