Members of the Hempfield orchestra received an opportunity of a lifetime as they learned from one of the preeminent musicians in his field.

Sponsored by the Hempfield Foundation, Tracy Silverman served as a guest instructor during rehearsals Jan. 27 and 28, which culminated with a public concert the evening of Jan. 28.

Silverman, who has graced major stages around the globe, is one of the first builders and players of the six-string electric violin and has premiered and recorded several major new electric violin concertos written specifically for him.

"I bring nontraditional artists to work with the students because orchestra strings are typically associated with your serious music, your classical music," Hempfield orchestra director Nile Wilson said. "Although the students enjoy that type of stuff, they also want to play other stuff. I want them to realize you could play all these different styles of music on your classical instruments. I want to widen their musical tastes."

Wilson likes to compare attempting various styles of music to trying new things to eat. "It's like food," she said. "You might not like certain foods, but you don't know what you don't like or like if you don't try it. And sometimes if you eat it often enough, you get an acquired taste for it. That's what I'm hoping the students get out of this."

Wilson said she is never certain what her students are gaining from the experience but is confident they will come to appreciate the opportunity. "Hopefully this is something they will look back on and appreciate they played with a big-name artist," she said.

It has also been a worthwhile experience for Wilson, who recalls listening to Silverman performing with the Turtle Island String Quartet while she was a high school student in the Philippines.

"I listened to his CDs in the '90s, and now I'm meeting him in the flesh," Wilson said.

Hempfield senior guitarist Owen Bush is not a member of the orchestra but joined the ensemble for this performance where he performed on songs "Kashmir" and "Purple Haze."

"It's pretty cool to learn these rock songs, and it's cool to do it with an orchestra," Owen said. "A lot of popular rock songs have an orchestra in them. I'm very much a background instrument, but it's still very cool to be involved."

Sophomore Emma Keller plays violin in the first violin section. She likes performing songs "Stairway to Heaven," "Seven Nation Army," and "Clocks" by Coldplay and has enjoyed spending time with Silverman. "I think he's really cool," said Emma. "He's one of my favorite artists who has come to the school because he's so chill and he works great with students. I like it a lot."

The Hempfield orchestra is made up of 65 high school performers and 95 middle-schoolers. Wilson has brought in several guests over the past four years, including a jazz violinist, fiddle group, and Latin music performer.

"Tracy is very multi-styled," Wilson said. "He doesn't like to be boxed in to one particular style, even though he plays jazz. He also plays rock. He plays multi-genres. Not many people play the electric violin and have music written specifically for him."

Having performed across the globe alongside some of the world's greatest musicians, Silverman still relishes the chance to work with aspiring players.

"It's always inspiring to work with kids and to see the light bulbs go off over their heads as they get stuff," Silverman said. "We were just working on blues and getting them to hear the different chords of the blues, which is kind of new territory for string players. ... It's also important for string players to be able to play with other kids, other instrumentalists who are guitar players, piano players, who are maybe playing pop music, and be able to improvise and rhythmically keep up with popular music as well. That's kind of my specialty and what I focus on."

Silverman hopes he is having an impact on the students no matter what career they pursue. "Everybody starts their musical journey somewhere," Silverman said. "In some ways it's more important to have that opportunity to influence their future. Players who are professional, finished players, it's fun to play with them, but I feel like I'm doing more good here than in that situation. I'm kind of changing the future of string playing by working with them now. Not everyone is going to stay with music. Certainly not everyone is going to become a professional musician, but a few of them will. Hopefully many of them will stay with music, if not professionally, on an amateur or hobby level, and hopefully they'll remember some of the things we did here and be able to take that with them."

Silverman said the two most important lessons he wants Hempfield students to take from this experience are "a good sense of rhythm and how important that is in playing contemporary music and also a sense of harmony, which a lot of string players don't think about because we're not a chordal instrument. We always rely on guitar players or piano players to accompany us, but I think it's important to start hearing the chords in the music we're playing."