The rows of chairs are arranged and ready in a space at the Coronado Community Center on a February evening. For now, the only sounds are the hum of fluorescent lighting and squeal of sneakers from the basketball court across the hall.
That'll change though in a couple of minutes, when the room will be filled with the sound of really bad music, courtesy of the Coronado Terrible Orchestra.
The hesitant horns, vacillant violins and timid trombones are played by adults who want to recapture one of the great joys of childhood — the freedom to perform poorly and be celebrated for it.
“It's nice to be able to have space to be bad at things. I like space to fail, so I'm excited about it,” said Brianna, a violinist.
The Coronado Terrible Orchestra plays under the direction of Cassie O'Hanlon, who was inspired by a similar concept in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she lived before moving to San Diego.
“When I moved out here, I started noticing that at least south, there's just not as big of a music community, as I started building my flute studio,” O’Hanlon said. So I just thought, why not try? You know, there's got to be people with instruments in their closets that want to play.”
The Fort Wayne Terrible Orchestra was inspired by The Really Terrible Orchestra of Scotland. While Coronado’s version is a long way from the other two, its mission is the same: provide adult beginner instrumentalists a judgement-free space to be bad and grow.
In the early 2000s, Jasmine Coldiron played the viola in the Mar Vista High School orchestra in Imperial Beach. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever have a chance to do it again.
“(The Terrible Orchestra) is definitely something that I've looked for throughout the last decade or so, and I'm really glad that I found it,” she said.
Coldiron heard about the Coronado Terrible Orchestra from her friend Geneva Wallace, who played violin in the same Mar Vista orchestra.
“(Geneva) sent me a link to this class and said we should do it. And I was like, yeah, throw caution to the wind, whatever … How bad could it be? Like it got to at least give it a try, you know, life's too short,” Coldiron said.
Wallace said she felt a sense of freedom right from the start.
“I wasn't nervous because I figured everybody’s going to be terrible, " Wallace said. “Probably everybody else hasn't played an instrument in 20-odd years too. So I'd be in good company. And my friend was with me so it was an exciting experience no matter what.”
The two of them are most excited to play for their families.
“My husband and my daughter … they know that I've (played) in the past, but they've never gotten to see me perform. So, I'm excited to play for them,” Coldiron said.
Wallace is mom to an 11-year-old and a 6-year-old.
“I just like doing stuff to make them proud and get them excited about the arts,” she said. “I was a big arts person growing up and I like to get them involved and see all the fun that could be out there in the arts world.”
For flutist Jacqueline Hardt, the Terrible Orchestra is helping her connect with her 12-year-old son, who’s learning the instrument.
“I want to play duets with him, I want to help him practice," Hardt said. “It also gives me an incredible sense of joy and pride that I can play with him. So he'll continue to develop. Hopefully, he'll get to play in an orchestra like this one day.”
O’Hanlon knows she’s succeeded when she sees the room ignited with a love for music, no matter how bad the music might be.
“I can only hope that they will just be incredibly kind to themselves while playing their instrument and just continue to play,” she said. “Even if they don't continue to play here as a group, just find the joy a little bit and continue to have music as part of their lives.”
