Great Grads: Joshua Lauretig

Name: Joshua Lauretig

Plans: Joshua is one of only 4 percent of applicants accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music, which has been rated the most exclusive conservatory in the country by the U.S. News & World Report. He'll study the oboe, and he hopes to play professionally after college.

What makes him a Great Grad: Joshua won a national competition to travel to Washington, D.C. Memorial Day weekend to perform a solo with the U.S. Navy Band. He’s played the oboe — a variation of the clarinet — since he was 10, and played the violin for four years before that.

“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t doing something with music,” he said. He added that family lore says that his great-grandmother was a great opera singer who had composers writing pieces for her, but no close relatives have pursued music professionally, as he plans to do “if some orchestra will take me,” he added.

Joshua has been in string orchestra and wind ensemble for four years, and he’s played with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra for five years and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra for six years. He's also attended the Interlochen Arts Camp for the past six summers and played in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra the past two years.