We had the BEST chat with orchestra educator Jonathan Glawe and members of the Pioneer High School Symphonic Strings Orchestra from Ann Arbor, Michigan (Eli Braunschneider --12th Grade, Soledad beck --10th Grade, Hyunsung Woo --11th Grade, and Luke Hayden --12th Grade). They are "on tour" and just had an amazing, ground-breaking performance at the National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta as a part of the ASTA Conference. This deeply inspiring and deeply honest conversation should be required listening for all secondary music educators as we continue our journey through "festival season." These students have real thoughts and ideas for helping ensure lifelong musicianship and artistic expression and opportunities for everyone are the REAL goals of "festivals" and music ed in general. I'm telling you --you NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS!