When sophomore Caroline Little started playing the violin in third grade, her parents were skeptical. Caroline had taken up many new activities, all of which she quit within months.

“My parents got me a three-week trial violin,” she said. “After three years, they were like, ‘Okay, maybe you’ll stick with it,’ and got me my own violin.”

Senior Emily Cunningham had a similar introduction to the school strings program.

“I said ‘Mom, can I learn the violin?’ and she said, ‘Sure.’ I don’t think I thought she would say yes,” Emily said.

Despite their casual introductions to the violin, both girls have developed a passion for playing over the years. Both are members of the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra and were recently selected for the Virginia All-State Orchestra.

The journey to All-State began in the fall, when both girls auditioned for the Regional Orchestra. Jamestown orchestra teacher Marie Johnson said that about 190 violinists auditioned for 44 spots on the Regional Orchestra. Only those who qualify for Regionals can go on to the audition for States, held at James Madison University.

“[Emily and I] drove up to JMU with my mom, and we were both saying, ‘I’m going to get 44!’ They only accept 44 people, and Emily got 43,” Caroline said.

“I’m surprised I got in at all,” said Emily.

Emily and Caroline are the first students Mrs. Johnson has ever had participate in an All-State Orchestra.

“It’s a big deal to be able to make it into something like that,” she said.

The All-State audition was not the only one for Emily to worry about. In March, she auditioned to get into the music program at Ithaca College, in New York.

“I don’t like auditions. I get nervous and screw up,” she said. “All-State was easier than Ithaca, just because there was so much riding on the Ithaca audition.”

Emily said she would like to major in music, which she said would be her dream job.

She and Caroline are already getting a taste of the working musician’s life, as members of a quartet that plays at weddings and parties. In addition to the quartet, Caroline has another musical job this summer, playing in a new show at Busch Gardens called Viva Italia.

“I’m not allowed to say what the show’s about because it’s new,” she said. “I have to dance, too. I had to go to a six-hour dance class once.”

Caroline said she is the youngest person hired for a Busch Gardens show in six years. For now, special arrangements must be made to accommodate her school schedule, but once summer starts, she will be a full-time employee.

“My dream is to get paid to play music, and now I’m doing that at 16, which I never thought would happen,” she said.

Last summer, Caroline attended a five-week long music camp called Eastern Music Festival, where students practiced for as long as seven hours a day.

“To go to a camp like that, you have to be really into it,” she said. “It was amazing to sit on a stage with all those people playing just as hard as you are—the energy was incredible.”

Caroline said that music is a huge part of her life.

“This is all I do,” she said. “It’s like my sport.”

Emily, who played in the pit orchestra for a recent production of Annie at Phi Beta Kappa Hall, spends a large amount of her time involved in music, also.

“If I quit all the orchestra stuff, I’d have so much free time,” she said.

Both girls said that practicing music on their own takes up much more time than the actual rehearsals.

Caroline said that the payoff after all the rehearsing is well worth the time, even if it’s not always easy. She explained that her private violin teacher recently moved, so she had to start going to a new teacher, who she said made her work much harder than her old teacher did.

“He tore me apart!” she said. “But this year I made States, and I didn’t with my old teacher.”

Mrs. Johnson said that although the audition for States is rigorous, it’s worth the work that Emily and Caroline put into it.

“It’s nerve-racking, but it’s good practice—if they want to audition for a professional orchestra it’s going to be the same thing,” she said. “I think they’re both just really glad it’s over.”