From middle school to middle aged, this collaborative orchestra is as diverse as the music it plays. 

Students from grades four through eight joined Orchestra 2001 and Metropolitan Opera Clarinetist Anthony McGill to rehearse on January 14 at West Catholic Preparatory High School for a January 18 performance at the Perelman Theatre and on January 26 at Swarthmore College celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Anthony McGill, who played with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman at President Obama's first inauguration, joined over two dozen young musicians to rehearse an original piece by local composer, Richard Danielpour, called "From the Mountaintop." Orchestra 2001 will play the piece with the students as well as a student-composed piece.

The students are part of Play On, Philly, a free after school music program that reaches 250 from locations at St. Fancis de Sales School in West Philadelphia and Freire Charter Middle School in Center City. With daily practices, the elementary and middle school students learn wind, string, brass or percussion instruments as well as how to play in symphony and compose music.

Students rehearsed and will perform student-composed, "Symphony in the Key of Unity." 

"Several of our students composed different types of things which we orchestrated into this piece," Stanford Thompson, Chief Executive Officer for the program told Orchestra 2001 musicians at the rehearsal. "There are a lot of different personalities that you will see and you will hear," Thompson explained. "We're going to do our best to capture all of them."

Listen to an excerpt of "Symphony in the Key of Unity" from the rehearsal: