Lansing senior selected to national honors orchestra

Next month, Lansing senior Larissa Hsu will be performing with the All-National Honors Symphony Orchestra as first chair flute, one of the highest honors a high school musician can receive.

Nick Olesko, director of bands at Lansing High School (LHS), expressed his excitement for Hsu’s selection.

“Lisa is the most talented and accomplished musician I have taught in my 21-year career,” he said in an email. “She has a passion for music and a work ethic that is rarely seen in high school students. She is also a kind and caring person who is liked and respected by her peers and teachers. She has a very bright future, and will have an amazing career as a professional flautist.”

Hsu said she first held a flute when she was 6 years old and was “around 7 years old when I started seriously taking the flute.”

She explained what music and the flute mean to her.

“In the family that I grew up in, we express our emotions really differently, I guess, because I’m Asian, so we don’t really [express emotions] very often,” Hsu said. “So, I think music is a way to do that without actually saying words. And I love that people can relate to it and have their own interpretations of what I’m trying to say. And I think that flexibility is what really drew me into music.”

At LHS, Hsu plays in the concert band, symphony orchestra, woodwind ensemble and pit orchestra. Outside of school, she is a member of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra and has performed in summer programs and flute honors ensembles.

In addition to her hard work and passion for music, Hsu expressed her appreciation for the Lansing community, her teachers and their support.

“I think the community here is really great,” she said. “They really support the arts here, which is really nice. They don’t discourage people for wanting to go into the arts. And especially at Lansing, the teachers there, they always know what you want to do with your life, and they’ll give you the resources that you need to move forward as an artist. And I think that’s really great.”

Along with Hsu, two other LHS students, Dillon Tyler and Aubryn Neubert, were also selected to All-State ensembles, both in the New York Conference All-State Mixed Chorus. And at the start of this month, Hsu and Neubert traveled to Rochester where they performed at Kodak Hall at the Eastman School of Music.

LHS Choir Director Katie Howell said of the Eastman School concert, “It was a phenomenal experience, and both performed beautifully!”

Howell spoke to the impact music can have on students’ lives.

“Music is extremely important for students,” she said in an email. “The past couple of years have been hard on everyone. I know so many students who have undergone major mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression. Music helps in so many ways. Music is a way to express our emotions and also a way to create positive emotions. Music is both deeply intellectual and completely intuitive. Music allows us to visit other cultures and to create connections with each other.”

The process of being selected to the National Association for Music Education All-National Honor Ensembles requires many steps. In order to be eligible to apply, Hsu had to first audition at New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) solo festival and then make it to All-State. And then, based on her selection at All-State, she was able to audition for the All-National Honors Symphony Orchestra itself. It was from this audition that she was selected as first chair flute.

The event was originally planned to be in San Diego but will be virtual this year and take place Jan. 22 to 24.

Hsu and the All-National Honors Symphony Orchestra will be performing “Symphony No. 1” by Florence Price and “Soul in Remembrance” by Mary Watkins.

Hsu explained what she is most looking forward to about the event.

“In a small town like this, it’s really hard to find professional-level ensembles with people who share the same interests as you,” she said. “And I’m really excited to be surrounded in an environment where people care about music as much as I do.”