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The UCLA Philharmonia practices for their first concert of the year, tonight at 8 p.m. in the Sch

If getting the standard rock-quartet together to practice isn’t easy, imagine preparing 82 students for an orchestral performance.

The UCLA Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Jon Robertson, is playing tonight at Schoenberg Auditorium at 8:00 p.m. For their first performance of the year, the orchestra will be playing Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4,” as well as work by professors of theory and composition Mark Carlson and Roger Bourland. The performance will also feature a trumpet solo by trumpet instructor Jens Lindemann and a piano solo by his wife, Jennifer Snow, who is on the piano faculty.

“It gives us a nice versatile program for the audience to experience,” said graduate student in cello performance Alisha Bauer. “We have a variety of romantic, classical and contemporary styles.”

Robertson, professor of orchestra and the director of orchestral conducting, has been conductor of the Philharmonia since 1992 and has watched it evolve for more than a decade.

“It’s an orchestra that has grown tremendously in quality over the years, partially because the quality of our students has increased, due also to the exceptionally fine faculty we have grouped together over the last 12 years,” he said.

The orchestra is primarily made of up graduate and undergraduate music students, with a few slots open for non-music students in the string section.

“It’s always a difficult process to build an orchestra at a university, because you keep rotating students,” said Robertson. “One year may be full of seniors who have been with you since freshman year ... and have become very comfortable with the ideas and training you have given them. Then the next year they graduate and you have a whole set of freshmen coming in. You’re literally starting all over again in ways to develop style.”

In addition to the high rate of turnover, there is another pressing element which factors in to the hustle and bustle in the orchestra room: time. The orchestra has only seven rehearsals prior to a show, twice a week for three hours.

“With that limited schedule, it’s tough to get it together,” Bauer said. “But it’s good, because it gives us the opportunity to experience what the professional orchestra does, which is having only a week to prepare a concert. The L. A. Philharmonic plays a concert every weekend.”

Choosing a repertoire is also an arduous task delegated to the conductor. It involves selecting the level of difficulty and the mode and style of the music.

“It’s a question of looking at the seasons and seeing how you want these students to grow as musicians,” said Robertson. “You try to choose repertoire that will enhance their growth and will challenge the students, but at the same time to make sure you have enough time to get them to play it well.”

Apart from biweekly rehearsals, stress of an upcoming show, classes, work and studying, students must factor in sufficient time to spend with their respective instruments.

“We need to take a couple of hours a day to practice,” said graduate student in flute performance Kumi Nakagawa. “Aside from a hectic schedule, we need to find a spot in our life every day when we can hold our instruments and just practice our own music.”

The UCLA Philharmonia is also scheduled to perform twice more this quarter, on Nov. 18 and Dec. 9.

“It’s a very good orchestra, and I’m very proud of it,” said Robertson. “They are playing extraordinary pieces and they’re playing them quite well, so I’m hoping that it will come together. It’s really something the student body shouldn’t miss – it’s exciting to hear them play this quarter.”