Charlottesville High School Orchestra conductor Laura Thomas hands me a photo and immediately begins to identify her former students. “There’s Tim Summers. And there’s Caroline Buckman.” The two are polar opposites: Summers, a Harvard and Juilliard graduate, co-founded the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. Buckman performs as a violist on the score for the hit ABC show, “Lost” and recently wrapped up a tour with hip-hop duo Gnarls Barkley.
Not the bloody London Philharmonic, but not too shabby: The CHS Orchestra is raising funds for a trip to London in 2007.
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The picture was taken before the first CHSO trip to New York City in 1989, where it took a gold medal at the New York Festival of Music. And this is Thomas’ greatest talent—taking a variety of students during the most divisive time of their lives and uniting them in award-winning sound. Now in her 25th year as conductor, Thomas has earned not less than a “Superior” rating at a District Music Festival since 1987; the walls are packed.
Roughly a quarter of the current group are minority students. Throw in the usual high school divisions—clothes, hobbies, cliques—and you have more in conflict than in common. How does Thomas deliver such uniformly stunning results from a varied group?
“We’re in this together,” she answers.
Skeptical, I decide to ask her former students.
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Tim Summers practiced with Thomas during first period from grades 10 to 12. “Everyone went into the day with a kind of ease and focus from playing music for the first hour of school,” he says.
Violist Caroline Buckman explains that she tries to express herself as she saw Thomas: “competent, but always eager to break outside the box.”
Summers and Buckman each credits a different personality trait of the conductor for their success. So which Thomas personality is responsible for the brilliance of her group? Relaxed and focused or innovative? Adagio or allegro?
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In the end, each characteristic of Thomas is to thank for the success of the group. Despite the overwhelming differences in high school, every CHSO member since 1982 has found some part of Thomas that they identify with and use as motivation.
On December 20, Summers and Buckman will join other alumni and the current CHS string ensemble for the Silver Strings Gala at 8pm at The Paramount Theater—a $20 event to raise money for CHSO’s trip to the Heritage Music Festival in London. The night is a tribute to Thomas’ 25 years as a conductor, during which time she has successfully meant everything to every student.
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