The UPrep chamber orchestra is back after the summer off and working through some growing pains of a young roster. Music teacher and Orchestra Conductor Thane Lewis is approaching this year the same as usual.

“It’s just a new batch of personalities and I’m interested in seeing how they interact with each other,” Lewis said.

He does what he can to allow each musician to thrive in the orchestra.

“We have good, strong leaders, but I need to find music that is appropriate to everyone’s level,” Lewis said. “That’s the hard part, finding the right the right things to play so that when nobody feels left behind, and everyone feels involved and invigorated.”

Without the Class of 2024, Lewis and the orchestra look to start anew.

“For me, it’s building experience for people,” Lewis said. “So, not having expectations of taking first place but having expectations that we’re going to build on our experience and compete and learn from these performances.”

Along with working to create a more cohesive team, they are also looking to experiment and play with new opportunities to perform.

“We’re thinking about doing a concert in the ULab,” Lewis said. “It offers us some creative possibilities for how to present there with possibly having people eating food while we play, maybe using different rooms and that within that space. So that’s a new a new thing for us.”

While he is without many of the leaders from last year’s class, he really enjoys watching the growth of his students.

“Seeing people challenged just enough so that they have to work a bit, overcome some difficulties, and then feel successful,” Lewis said. “That’s what’s the fun part about teaching, seeing that process.”