Vestavia teen selected to play in National Youth Orchestra

Lydia Hanje, a Vestavia Hills resident and recent high school graduate, fell in love with playing the trumpet at Pizitz Middle School. Her sister convinced her mom to let her join and made Hanje follow suit.

“My sister was in the band, and I didn’t want to be because she was in the band, but my mom forced me into it,” Hanje said.

She quickly discovered that playing the trumpet was something she was good at and later realized music was something she had a true passion for.

Seven years later, that passion earned Hanje a spot on the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, a free, multiweek summer music program hosted by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. As part of NYO-USA, students learn from professional orchestra musicians, play in an annual concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City and play in concert halls around the world.

Hanje was one of 109 students who were selected for NYO-USA across 34 states. This year’s orchestra will feature 29 musicians who played in NYO-USA last year and 33 musicians who played in NYO2, including Hanje. NYO2 is another free summer orchestra program hosted by Carnegie Hall for young musicians.

This summer, students will stay on Purchase College, State University of New York’s campus for several weeks of training, rehearsals and activities before their Carnegie Hall concert and tour around Europe.

Hanje has played in several popular events including the Birmingham Wind Symphony, All-State Band and All-State Jazz Band, she said.

Despite all of her siblings being involved in music — her older sister being an opera singer and her younger brother currently learning to play the saxophone — she wouldn’t classify her parents as musical, Hanje said.

“No, my parents are tone-deaf,” she said, laughing.

Hanje learned about NYO-USA through her friends when she was a junior at Interlochen Arts Academy last year, an arts boarding school in Interlochen, Michigan.

“They were like, ‘Are you applying to NYO-USA?’ And I was like, ‘What’s that?’” Hanje said.

Hanje said she applied for a seat in the orchestra a few weeks before the deadline, which left her with little time to prepare.

“I just put a bunch of stuff together and was like, ‘Hey, at least I tried,’” Hanje said.

She made it to NYO-USA as an alternate but earned a seat in NYO2, she said.

Hanje said she was more prepared to apply for the orchestra this year because she knew about NYO-USA in advance.

To apply for her seat, she recorded an audition video, performed four excerpts of music and created a video essay and a personal essay, she said.

Her personal essay was about her finally fulfilling her dream of playing volleyball when she was a student at Interlochen, she said.

“I played in fourth and fifth grade, but that was baby volleyball,” Hanje said.

In her personal essay, she talked about her experiences of bonding with the rest of the volleyball team and her excitement for possibly meeting new people as a member of NYO-USA, she said.

Hanje said she’s looking forward to meeting new people while performing with the orchestra this summer. Playing the trumpet has allowed her to meet interesting people from around the world, she said.

When she went to her first band camp at Interlochen, she was able to meet people from across the globe, including Macedonia and Venezuela, Hanje said.

“When I was there [NYO2] last year, there were people from Japan and Germany. One of my friends is from Germany,” Hanje said. “It’s cool to meet people, not only from different parts of the United States but also from different parts of the world. I feel like everyone has a different musical background and story about how they got to play their instrument and how they got to NYO.”

Hanje said music allows her to express herself and communicate how she’s feeling.

“Music is a form of self expression, and through music, I can communicate that and hopefully portray what I’m feeling to the audience when I play,” Hanje said.

Hanje said she is extroverted and that can be shown through some of her performances. If she is playing music that is fast and energetic, she can feel her personality in the music, she said.

“When playing slower, more beautiful music, I really have to ask myself what I want to portray,” Hanje said. “I don’t like talking about deep and emotional things as much as I like making jokes, so I have to find it in myself. If that means making up a story in my mind, I do that.”

She said when she was in school, a band teacher would sit her in front of a piece of music and ask her what kind of song she thought it was.

“Is it a love song or a pirate song?” he would ask.

Hanje said she is excited to perform “Symphony No. 5,” a composition by Gustav Mahler and this year’s musical piece selected by NYO-USA, because it has a “heavy trumpet part” and she’s never performed it before.

“I’ve played through the parts in a brass class but never performed it, so I’m excited to perform that,” Hanje said.

After her concert at Carnegie Hall and tour in Europe, Hanje will be attending Rice University in Houston to pursue a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance.

Her dream is to play professionally as an orchestral musician and travel with different orchestras in the country, she said.

According to Carnegie Hall’s website, Andrew Carnegie was inspired to build the music hall by his wife, Louise, and Walter Damrosch, conductor of the Symphony Society of New York and the Oratorio Society, a choral music group in New York. Iconic musicians across every genre throughout history have played at Carnegie Hall, including Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, the Beatles, Tchaikovsky, Benny Goodman, Gustav Mahler and George Gershwin.

The first NYO program, NYO-USA, was created in 2013, followed by NYO2 in 2016 and NYO Jazz in 2018.

Hanje will perform in NYO-USA’s first concert of the summer season July 28 at 8 p.m. on Carnegie Hall’s Perelman Stage at Stern Auditorium.