A year ago, Emmie Matthews performed at the Aiken County Garcia Orchestra Festival as a sixth-grader with the Beginning Strings Orchestra.
On Monday, she played her violin at the next level with the junior strings group.
"I've never practiced so long in one day," Emmie said with a smile after the performance. "But it was helpful. The music is different, and we did have to practice a longer period of time."
The festival opened at the Etherredge Center in the afternoon with the beginner group, led by David Culp, Schofield Middle School's strings director.
The Junior Strings Orchestra and the All-County Senior Orchestra performed at night in front of nearly 400 family members and friends.
Greg Priest, the Aiken High School band and orchestra director, served as emcee.
Other music directors participating in the program were Heather Drake, Midland Valley High; Adrianne Blanchard, North Augusta Middle School and Paul Knox Middle School; Joyce Culp, Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle School; and Joe Laorenze, instructor of home-school students.
The orchestra program within the Aiken County School District saw its roots in an after-school program, started by David Culp at Schofield more than a decade ago.
The program was moved into several schools as a formal part of the curriculum - supported in conjunction by the Public Education Partners' Garcia Orchestra Project.
Hundreds of students have benefited since then.
"This experience was a lot of fun," said violinist Patrick LeGrand, an Aiken High junior. "It's pretty amazing growing up in this environment."
The guest clinician for the All-County Senior Orchestra was Phillip Pagal, the music director at Ridge View High School in Columbia. The Junior String Orchestra was led by Haley Calore, the Irmo Middle School music director.
After the concert, Pagal expressed his delight that the students could pull off challenging music in just eight hours of rehearsal.
"The great thing of working with these students is their level of professionalism," Pagal said. "It's just their sheer joy of being on the stage. They were smiling right at me."
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter and has been with the newspaper since September 2001. He is a native of Walterboro and majored in journalism at the University of Georgia.