Photo of the strings class in New York at the orchestra. (Photo taken by Cora Bolser)

The lights dim in the performing arts center and the crowd quiets in anticipation. Meredith Reber, director of the Highlands strings program, steps forward to introduce the young musicians on stage. She cues the orchestra to play and the space is filled with a wonderful melody. This is one of the many strings concerts that Highlands brought to the community. 

Recently, more efforts have been made to connect the community to the strings program at Highlands.

The Highlands strings program has become more involved with the community over the past few years. Under the direction of a new director more ideas have been proposed and acted on, which has taken the program to another level. Meredith Reber has led the strings program to be closely involved with the community. 

“My first year teaching there had been two separate concerts previously scheduled by the last teacher, so concerts in December for middle and highschool and a concert in May for middle and highschool. I was thinking to myself that’s not enough performance opportunities for us.” Reber said. 

Reber has done so much to bring the program together and get people excited about sharing music in the community. 

“I also reached out to Carmel Manor, which is a nursing home for the elderly, so I reached out to them and asked if they would be interested in hosting a couple middle school classes and just having us perform for the residents,” Reber said.

She enjoys sharing music with others and wants her students to have fun with it as well. Reber has drawn on her own experience to bring in more community involvement and would love to pass down wonderful memories to her current and future students. 

“I remember doing something like that when I was in middle school, I did that at like a bookstore I think, and I thought it was the most fun thing ever to play in some place that’s not my classroom during a school day and just perform for other people, so I wanted to provide that opportunity for my kids as well,” Reber said.  

The strings program has really evolved over the last few years, part of that being getting physically into the community more. By playing in different locations throughout the area the program aims to bring music to everyone. 

“We of course put on the concerts every concert cycle so there is now a fall one, a winter one, and then two spring concerts and that’s open to the community of course. We also perform at the firehouse at the Holiday Walk every winter and we do a few various things throughout the year but those are the main consistent ones,” String student leader Noah Huber (12) said. 

The Holiday Walk performance is done at the firehouse in Fort Thomas, so students get to perform to the community while in the community. 

By going into the community students can see the impact they make firsthand. Performing outside of school deepens connections with other musicians and community members.

“My second year I had heard from a lot of my highschoolers about how in the past with Mrs. Anderson, the person who created the strings program, about how the highschool program would take fall break trips to different cities across the country. I really, really, wanted to do that and bring that back and have that be part of our strings program again,” Reber said.

She really wanted to make these trips a reality for her students again since it was their suggestion. It was such a good idea to get more people involved with the program, so Reber made it happen. 

“So, this was my first year actually, I started organizing a trip to Chicago. And I chose Chicago because I was familiar with the area…I had a great time and I heard from you guys you had a good time as well.” Reber said.