If you pulled senior Alex Rios to the side and asked what he was listening to, it wouldn’t be Ariana Grande or Kanye, it would be Shostakovich’s Waltz No.2 from the Tchaikovsky violin concerto.

For 8 years Alex has been playing the violin, an instrument most of us begin learning as soon as 4th grade and have moved on from by 5th. In those years, a lot of people choose to branch out into new instruments and explore their sounds, but Alex stands strong in his belief that violins are the superior instrument, for “they almost always have the melody and are the more well-known instrument.”

As a dedicated orchestra kid, dedicated enough to take jabs at “band kids,” he’s busy every Friday from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm taking private lessons. Because waking up early to go play during zero period and then again during 1st period just isn’t enough time, right? Alex explains that “I started taking private lessons because I figured I had gotten as far as I did without one-on-one attention and wanted to see how much that one-on-one would help me grow, and it has helped tremendously.” All that time massaging the strings has brought him the ability to play his favorite piece “Jupiter” by Holst’s The Planets. This, along with Schubert’s Masse in G, just so happens to be the piece he’s most proud of as well!

Of course, the pandemic impacted people in a range of different ways, and now we see it even affected musicians. “Covid made it difficult to be a musician and my playing got a little better over it, but I didn’t have any opportunities to perform which hurt my morale,” Alex said. If the fine arts building is or ever has been your home, it’s common knowledge the classes tend to get pushed to the side. Controversy arose last year when various sports at Sahuaro were still able to practice and have games, but the theater department wasn’t allowed to have shows and musical classes weren’t able to hold concerts. “Knowing that sports took a priority over the arts made me furious. We weren’t allowed to perform or practice but sports were allowed to have games and practices.” Thankfully, this school year orchestra has already had their first concert and has another one coming up in December!

After we leave high school and enter the “adult world” we often see people lose time for their passions as they get jobs and go to school. Alex hopes to be able to continue playing into college, “but the skill level of college musicians is so high, I’ll have to see if I can do it.” Well, we believe in you, king. 🙂