CHS senior organizes middle school orchestra

The orchestra operated as an after-school club for the first three years under the tutelage of Camas High choir teacher Ethan Chessin, but before the start of this school year, Hansen successfully petitioned to create an official class, which has been taught by Camas High band teacher Richard Mancini.

“From day one, she did a lot of recruitment, made posters, had tables at fairs and talked to administrators,” Chessin said. “I helped her, but the impetus was all her. Without her we wouldn’t have an orchestra here.”

Now, with the vast majority of the 15 orchestra students set to graduate on June 14, Hansen wants to make sure that Camas’ string-instrument musicians continue to receive opportunities.

At the start of this school year Hansen started an orchestra club for Liberty and Skyridge middle school students, who she has been teaching during Camas School District’s late-start days at Liberty Middle School as part of her senior project.

“I think classical music is sort of the quintessential method for self expression,” she said. “It allows you to express yourself in ways other things can’t. I wanted to allow other people to have access to that.”

Hansen’s six students will perform in public for the first time during a Camas High concert on Thursday, June 6. Most of them had at least two months of violin experience, which gave Hansen a starting point to work with.

“They more or less knew how to play. I helped them through the technical aspects of playing and helped them rehearse,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed it. It’s great that they’re so enthusiastic and feel passionately about classical music.”

“The literal (goal) was to strengthen the Camas High School music program,” she continued. “The figurative (goal) was dipping my toe into teaching and seeing what that’s like, and it was interesting. Their attention span was really short, so I found myself being a lot more energetic and mixing things up a lot.”

Hansen comes from “an arts vigilante kind of family,” according to her mother, Jane Hansen, who said that Sofia’s great grandfather helped to start an orchestra in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1940s.

“I think that ideologically it is the arts that help young people connect with something that’s greater than themselves and also deep within themselves, and it’s tragic that with (budget) cuts that the arts go first,” Jane said. “I think (Sophia’s project) is a noble contribution, and I hope this seed that’s been planted and honored will grow into a beautiful opportunity for many, many young people to get in touch with the power of music and themselves through music.”

“I’m not exactly sure (what I want to do) on the business side of things, but as far as the viola goes, I would love to play professionally, perhaps as a symphony player or quartet player, and maybe even be a teacher,” she said. “Eventually I’d like to start my own orchestra.”

It’s a good thing, then, that Hansen already has experience doing just that.