Eric Xiong, a junior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, has been chosen for the National High School Honors Orchestra, according to a press release. Xiong is a violinist and is the only student from Kentucky in the 2013-2014 group, which is hosted by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
The honors orchestra is a collection of 100 competitively selected musicians who assemble biennially to perform at the ASTA national conference. The next gathering is March 5-8 in Louisville, where the students will present Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
The orchestra includes juniors and seniors who play stringed instruments and percussion, and wind students in grades 9-12. Gary Lewis, director of orchestras and professor of music at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will rehearse the students for three days to prepare for the concert performance.
At Dunbar, Eric is under the guidance of orchestra director Rebecca Goff.