Wawasee High School’s orchestra was one of seven select high school ensembles from Indiana, Illinois and Michigan participating in the Great Lakes Confucius Institute Music Festival held at Valparaiso University Thursday.

A concert held in the Chapel of the Resurrection capped off the four-day festival, which included a day of workshops for the American high school students, where they had a hands-on opportunity to learn about traditional Chinese instruments including the erhu, a two-string fiddle, and the guqin, a seven-string zither-like instrument. The final selection of the festival concert featured more than 300 musicians in an arrangement of traditional Chinese folk tune, “Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower).”

Students from the orchestra were enthusiastic about the experience. Ashley Larson said, “It was a fun learning experience and I really like how we got to play with other schools and see the difference between American culture and Chinese culture. ”

Dori Brito agreed. “The most exciting part,” she said, “was when we were all able to play as a full orchestra with the Chinese students and all of the other schools combined.”

Joyce Dubach is the director of the WHS orchestra.