EXCHANGE: Senior thrives in orchestra, cross country

Entering his sixth-grade year at Challand Middle School, his orchestra teacher, Barb Lauff, persuaded him to run the Music in Motion 5K, at which he was slated to play violin.

The Sterling High School senior and Illinois State Scholar recently emerged victorious from the 20016 Clinton Symphony Orchestra's Young Artist auditions, held for students in Whiteside and Carroll counties in Illinois and Clinton and Jackson counties in Iowa.

Lund edged out another Sterling student, freshman cellist Liam Estes.

Despite the fact that he's been concertmaster of the Sterling High orchestra for 4 years and twice made the All-State Orchestra, Lund said performing the solo during the Feb. 27 winter concert in the Morrison High School auditorium will be unlike anything he's done.

[...] before stepping out to perform "Romance No. 2 in F Major, Op. 50" by Ludwig van Beethoven, he'll have great company - including Lauff, who also plays in the orchestra's violin section.

When you play the higher-level stuff - the Beethovens, the Bachs, and the Mahlers - you understand that these people wrote with a purpose, rather than just writing music.

Lauff gets misty when she describes her kinship with Lund, and said his parents, Richard and Marla Lund, are well-deserving of a standing ovation.

[...] if they simply realize music and running are both passions sustainable for the duration of a lifetime, if a youngster simply recognizes a symphony in a movie's score, that's validating.

Cody Lund, a violinist and senior at Sterling High School, will be the star of the show when the Clinton Symphony Orchestra performs at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in the auditorium at Morrison High School, 643 Genesee Ave.

The program will also include the overture to the opera "The Bartered Bride," a suite from the opera "Carmen," and the Fourth Symphony of Johannes Brahms.