A music composition and English double major, junior James May from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was an intern in the Chorus Office for the Cleveland Orchestra over summer courtesy of APEX (Academic Planning and Experiential learning) at The College of Wooster.
James had a variety of duties such as overhauling their music score library, reorganizing the material, coordinating groups of scores to send offsite and updating their electronic database. Aside from those responsibilities, he was also an assistant at proctoring auditions, helped with music distribution and sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Summer Chorus at their Blossom Festival concert in July.
Unsure of his future plans, James wanted his summer experience to prepare him for any path he might choose after college. “For my own sake I wanted to take on something that would provide as wide a range of experiences as possible, and the Cleveland Orchestra has absolutely done so.” With the help of APEX, he was able to immerse himself in his summer experience without the concern of finances, “ the Fellowship has allowed to me live independently for these two months…I was able to set up the internship myself but had no chance of taking it were it not for APEX,” said James.
By Kanika Issar ’15