Illini Football fans may have found another calling in a UI Symphony Orchestra concert.

The student Symphony Orchestra is a competitive, professional group similar to the Illini football team, said Donald Schleicher, the group’s music director and conductor. In his 13th year with the orchestra, Schleicher said that his main focus is to give the students orchestral training.

“It’s just like the Illini football team learning to play at a professional level,” Schleicher said. “The only difference is we can’t lose any concerts.”

The UI Symphony Orchestra is composed of 100 students, who act as the cultural benchmark of the School of Music. Schleicher said the group represents the best of the school. Students rehearse as an academic class: They meet three times a week and receive course credit. The Orchestra performs four times a semester and even goes on the occasional tour, the most recent being to the Orchestra Hall in Chicago in 2007.

The passion from students like Katherine Denler, junior in FAA, is what keeps the orchestra at such a professional level.

“I knew that I wanted to play the harp since I was six, when I saw a harpist in Chicago,” Denler said. Denler has been playing the harp for seven years and is now a harp performance major.

This season marks the first full year that Denler will play with the UI Symphony Orchestra because harpists are assigned by piece, not ensemble.

“This season, three harpists are assigned but will never all play together,” Denler said. “I’m playing in the first half of the fall and spring performances and have the second halves off.”

Although harpists are assigned to pieces differently than the rest of the ensemble, they still go through the professional level auditions required to join.

“We hold blind screen auditions,” Schleicher said. “Students go behind a screen so we can not see anything about the student.”

Schleicher added that this is the way professional orchestras conduct auditions because it is the fairest way.

“Joining the orchestra is no different than joining the Illini football team because you need to audition to qualify,” Schleicher said.

Once students join the group, a lot of time and dedication is required in order to maintain the high standard that the orchestra prides itself on. Lesley Hastings, a fourth year doctoral student in music, plays the clarinet in the group and said that preparing your part is the most difficult task of being in the orchestra.

“Our homework is to learn all of the notes for our part, and juggling that with everything else gets taxing,” Hastings said.

With two-hour rehearsals three times a week, preparation time before a concert and a two-hour concert, Denler agrees that a lot of work goes into being in the orchestra.

Usually students see their assignment for a piece on a Saturday, then learn the music alone over the weekend and come to rehearsal on Monday to practice with the group, Denler said.

However, the hard work pays off because the first concert this past Friday was a hit. Event stage manager Jenina Kenessey, a second year masters student in music, worked the performance and said it brought out the biggest crowd she has ever seen for a school production.

Not only was it a great crowd, but the students themselves put on an excellent show, Kenessey said.

“It was very professionally run,” Kenessey said. “All the musicians had a professional demeanor and played at a professional level.”

After playing the clarinet for 18 years, Hastings definitely has a professional mindset. She does not mind the time and effort required to play an instrument because she loves playing in ensembles with other musicians.

“We play great classical and new music,” Hastings said. “The entire last season was awesome because there were a lot of clarinet features and we played Mahler Symphony No. 2, which had over 200 people on stage.”

Being expected to learn advanced pieces quickly like a professional orchestra is what gives Denler a rush.

“It is nice to be pushed with your classmates and then be seen in a professional light,” Denler said.

Both Denler and Hastings enjoy music so much they see it in their future in one way or another.

As a performance major, Denler plans on playing with a professional orchestra in the future.

Although Hastings also wants to play professionally, she said she is at school to receive her doctorate in musical arts and ultimately wants a teaching job at a university.

“I want to do what my teacher does for me,” Hastings said. “That’s the main thing.”

Whether it is future aspirations they have or the competitive level these students play at, Schleicher said the passion that all the members of the UI Symphony Orchestra bring is truly inspiring.

“I learn as much from them as they do from me,” Schleicher said. “Their enthusiasm, energy and spirit are stimulating.” For more information on the UI Symphony Orchestra, check out their Web site at http://www2.music.uiuc.edu/ensemblesUISymph.php. Student tickets for performances are only $4.