Meet our Co-Op Student

My name is Alia Reynolds, and I will be completing a co-op placement with the Georgian Bay Symphony during my last semester of high school, finishing at the end of June. I grew up in Southampton, but I have attended high school in Owen Sound and moved here in the fall of 2015.

Music has always been a very big part of my life. I started playing the flute when I was nine years old. I was the youngest person to join my elementary school band by three years, and I enjoyed performing with them as well as performing as an accompanist during school productions like musicals and assemblies. I was a part of the Southampton community band with the rest of my family for five years as well, and briefly joined a beginner’s band to learn how to play the clarinet, although that wasn’t something I stuck with. I spent a year with the Youth Orchestra, and joined my high school band for two years until I switched schools and that was no longer an option.

Since starting this placement in mid-February, I have been able to experience many different aspects of what the symphony does. I have been able to start helping to prepare for this year’s Wine Event with the people organizing it, and will continue to be involved in the process. I have worked with the librarian to start organizing some of the music that isn’t currently being used, and have started working with some of the social media that is used. During one of the board meetings, I was able to sit in and learn a bit more about how decisions are made and what some of the goals for the symphony are, both short term and long term. I will be attending some of the symphony’s rehearsals as well as working at the concerts, and I look forward to seeing the progress that is made firsthand.

I am still very passionate about music, and I have enjoyed many of the Georgian Bay Symphony’s Christmas concerts over the years. I hope that through this experience as a co-op student, I will learn how to organize and manage some of the work that goes on behind the scenes to help make concerts and events possible. I would like to pursue representation or management of musical artists in the future, and I see this as a great opportunity to prepare myself for that. I look forward to learning more about these processes and experiencing all that the Georgian Bay Symphony has to offer over the next few months!