. . . is made by my
heroes.
DAPHNE GARCIA
ORCHKIDS STUDENT
As a five-year-old, Daphne Garcia would turn the radio
to a classical station and dance around her room.
“My mom would always come in, and she’d be like,
‘You’re just crazy.’” Then—in second grade—her ESL
teacher invited her to participate in a violin class.
“My dream had come true,” she says. The following
year, she joined OrchKids and met “amazing” Maestra
Alsop, “one of the few conductors in the world who is
a girl,” who told her “to work hard and practice a lot.”
Now a fifth-grade student, Daphne’s work ethic is firmly
established. And although her first violin teacher has
since left her school, Highlandtown Elementary/Middle
School #215, that early motivation remains. “I think
about her and how she was picky with me. How she
wanted me to be as good as her.”