In the strings family, the violin and viola are often looked at as twins—the viola being the less popular twin. The common misconception is that they’re basically the same thing. However the viola actually has more in common with the cello.

“It’s like a mini cello…I’ve had to explain it so much,” said senior Megan Kitts.
Kitts has spent much time around strings instruments ever since she began playing the viola in her school orchestra when she was nine years old.
“In the fourth grade I thought it was really cool,” said Kitts.
Ever since then, orchestra has been a huge part of her life. Young Kitts chose the viola because she thought the violin was too high pitched and the other instruments were too big. Now as a senior she is not only in the WS school orchestra, but also in an orchestra at Northern Virginia Community College, where she takes classes every Wednesday night. The class is comprised of some NoVa students as well as local music teachers. As well as receiving college credits, she earned a $500 scholarship through her NoVA course. They have two concerts a year and Kitts gets 2 full college credits for taking the class.
“I just really love it. I wanted to be more involved in the community,” said Kitts.
When she’s not playing in the orchestra herself, she is helping others. Kitts teaches private lessons for elementary school students. Inside and outside of school, Kitts integrates music into all aspects of her life.
Kitts is the president of the WS Tri-M Honor Society which is an honor society for everyone involved in music. This year Kitts and the rest of the officers have dramatically transformed the organization. Membership has increased drastically; people are now bringing in a lot more points, and are trying to planning to a concert together sometime soon.
Surprisingly, though, music isn’t Kitts’s main focus for the future. She wants to major in biology. If possible she would love to double major with music or perhaps minor in music. Even though it isn’t her main focus, she definitely incorporates music into her academics. This year she is taking AP music theory.
“Everyone thinks it’s easy because it’s a music class, but it’s actually really hard,” said Kitts.
One might think that taking another class at a local community college, leading Tri-M, and taking an extra AP would add even more stress to the already intense strain of high school. Kitts, however, enjoys orchestra in any setting.
“It’s always chill until the week before a concert,” said Kitts, “then it’s crunch time.”