Norman High School’s orchestra is looking to rebound after losing 25 members from last year’s graduating class.
As the 2025-2026 school year begins, many of those seniors were replaced by underclassmen, resulting in a completely new viola and violin 2 section and causing a huge change to the organization as a whole.
Eli Schmidt, a senior violin player, acknowledges that the orchestra is still on track to be successful.
“We are still ahead of the curve,” said Schmidt. “I think the orchestra will perform well.”
Orchestra is a collaboration between all players, meaning that huge overall change in the class can cause setbacks or major improvements. Over the course of the first couple of months, Norman High’s orchestra has done a lot of adjusting to the new look.
“Many of the upperclassmen have done a great job of leading the new players,” said Owen Westmoreland, a senior bass player.
Norman High’s orchestra is known for continuously receiving a “1” overall rating at contest. A “1” is the highest mark receivable. Since the arrival of the current orchestra director, Steve Waddell, the Norman High School orchestra has never received a score lower than a “1” at district or state contest.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we will get 1’s again,” stated Owen, “ as long as Mr. Waddell is our director, I can’t picture a world in which we don’t.”
Norman High School’s orchestra hopes to see this massive change positively, relying on existing leadership to achieve a “1” at contest.
Norman High will compete in the OSSAA district contest on November 20th, 2025.