String and Chamber Orchestra students across NAI and NASH recently came together for their annual spring trip, this year at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For four days in the sun and sand, orchestra students from all four high school grade levels combined to grow in both their musical skill and their friendships with each other.
Myrtle Beach has long been a favorite location for orchestra students over the years.
“I think we’ve done the Myrtle Beach trip four times since I started at North Allegheny in 2006,” NASH Orchestra teacher Mrs. Lavelle stated. “The Myrtle Beach trip is great because it is all about spending time together as a group in a beautiful place. There are performance and competition opportunities and we just have a great time being together.”
The trip began with a musical workshop by Scott Laird, the Fine Arts Chair and Instructor of Music at the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics, where the workshop was hosted. NASH Orchestra students had the opportunity to rehearse their music alongside members of the NAI string and chamber orchestras before their performance at the adjudication the following day.
For Lavelle, this stop is not only one of the most important for performance but also a personal favorite.
“I really love the workshop we do on the way in Durham with Scott Laird,” she shared. “I think he does a great job rehearsing our students and preparing them for an adjudication.”
After the initial stop in North Carolina, students were given a chance to unwind during the final stretch of the drive before the adjudication the following morning. The adjudication was hosted by Myrtle Beach High School, where a combined NAI-NASH String orchestra and a NAI-NASH Chamber Orchestra performed a short string of rehearsed pieces for a judge. Although the idea was initially intimidating to some, many students were glad for the experience.
“I was expecting to be too nervous to play and hate it because of that but I really loved it, and I was so sad when I realized we weren’t going to play [our pieces] anymore at the end,” junior cellist Khyronessa Avotri shared.
Students were then allowed to return to the hotel for free time at the beach, which was a favorite part of the trip for many.
“I absolutely loved the beach,” Avotri stated. “I think the day we had on the beach and the time we got to relax in the hotel pool and hot tub if you wanted was [my favorite].”
Being at the beach with beautiful weather is always something I hope for,” Lavelle said, “and this year we definitely got lucky!”
Beach time was followed by dinner at Original Benjamin’s Calabash Seafood Buffet, which was a favorite meal among the orchestra students in attendance.
“I wasn’t expecting the seafood buffet to be something I would like because I hadn’t heard of calabash before, but it was really good,” said senior violinist Jennifer Zhang.
The final event of the trip’s second day was a tribute show titled Legends in Concert, which was initially met with a lot of skepticism from students but emerged as one of the biggest highlights of the trip.
“I also love the ‘Legends in Concert’ performance we attend because the students never know what to expect and it ends up being so much fun for them,” Lavelle shared.
Students were just as enthusiastic as Lavelle predicted.
“I enjoyed the Legends in Concert a lot! The singers were really accurate,” Zhang stated.
“[My favorite parts were] between the Legends concert and medieval times. I really enjoyed the actors in both, and it was a lot of fun to scream in the audience,” said senior violist Alanna Imm.
“It was so confusing at first, but so fun when you really got into it,” Avotri explained.
The final day of the trip, students stepped away from musical performance for a brief break on the beach and time to explore the city of Myrtle Beach through Broadway at the Beach, a massive outdoor mall that offered everything from fair rides to souvenir shopping to museums. The entire orchestra visited Ripley’s Aquarium, where they got to experience up-close encounters with exotic sea life.
“It was awesome to pet a lot of the sea creatures,” said senior violinist Patrick Kigin. “I wasn’t expecting stingrays to be slimy.”The tunnels [in the enclosures] were super immersive and it felt like you were in the ocean.”
The 2025 Orchestra trip came to a close with a time warp into the medieval era at the Medieval Times dinner show, which proved to be another favorite moment of the trip.
“My overall favorite was definitely the Medieval Times show,” Kigin stated. “I really liked watching the jousting.”
Avotri exclaimed, “At the beginning, I didn’t get the storyline, but when they started fighting, I was like, ‘This is awesome!’”
When she returned to NASH on Monday, Lavelle said her favorite part about the trip was too difficult to pinpoint.
“I loved any part of the trip where we were making music or laughing together!” she stated.
