Hempfield High School junior Maya Sauder has been playing the cello since she was 5 years old. As Sauder has honed her skills over the years, her journey as a cellist has taken her through a medley of orchestras and performances, including the All-National Honor Ensembles held by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) in November 2022.

"(Playing the cello) has always been something that I've really enjoyed," said Sauder. "My main focus has been on cello as far as I can remember."

Sauder was one of 118 students from across the country who qualified to perform in NAfME's Orchestra Festival in National Harbor in Maryland. Each student auditioned by submitting a video one year prior to the festival and had to progress through the district, regional and all-state levels. The auditions at all levels are normally in person but were held virtually last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was Sauder's first time performing at the festival. "I had a lot of fun at the festival. It was really cool being surrounded by people that are as dedicated to music as you are," said Sauder. "It's easy to have conversations with everyone because of that shared interest."

Sauder has performed in local youth orchestras since she was in fifth grade and plays in Hempfield High School's string orchestra. In seventh grade, Sauder began traveling to the Peabody Institute in Baltimore once a week for private lessons and now performs in the Peabody Institute's youth orchestra. Sauder credits her instructor, Daniel Levitov, with developing her skills as a cellist.

"He helped me to listen to my own sound and pay attention to how I perform," Sauder said. "He helped me to learn how to communicate what I want in my music when I'm performing."

Sauder finds herself primarily listening to classical and orchestral music and loves music that features the cello and violin. Sauder occasionally enjoys pop music that her friends have shown her, but her favorite artist remains Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Sauder's favorite aspect of the cello is the variety of music that it can be featured in. "You can find cello in orchestras, quartets, and chamber orchestras, but there is also a huge number of solo pieces that cellists can play," Sauder said. "Not every instrument has that big of a repertoire."

Sauder is still deciding where she will continue her education after she graduates from Hempfield High School, but she plans to major in cello performance wherever her path leads her.