The student: Jay Brimley, 17

School: River Hill High

Special achievement: Played violin with professional musicians at the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra's (BCO) Side-by-Side concert. Top high school players from the Maryland All-State Orchestra were selected to rehearse and perform with the BCO in February.

What he learned from the BCO musicians: "Musical maturity. Instead of playing the music just to get the notes right, it's playing the music because you like it and because you want to get better."

How being a musician has helped him in school: "If you've got the discipline to play for nine years, you've got the discipline to be interested in math. A lot of music is technical stuff, so it fine-tunes your brain a little bit."

Other accomplishments: Last summer, he attended the Meadowmount School of Music in New York. World-renowned musicians Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma are alumni. "I just wanted to see if I would get in. ... I was very proud."