Community Strings is a group of adult string players who expressed the desire to play in a string orchestral setting.

As adult players and in some cases adult beginners, no opportunity existed locally for these players to play together, similar to various community bands and choruses for other instruments and voices. The Johnstown Symphony Orchestra (JSO) agreed to help create an outlet to try to meet these desires and the Community Strings was born in Spring of 2009. The players, from as far away as Berlin and Loretto across Somerset and Cambria counties, have been meeting simply to enjoy and enrich their personal accomplishments alongside players of similar yet varied skill levels.

The goal has been to play as a group, to learn as a group from the director and from each other, and to enrich each player's life with the communal benefits and pleasures of music. Some side benefits are that individual skill levels improve, players understand the dynamics of playing as an ensemble (rather than individuals) and they realize there are other like-minded and like-skilled players. Just as student musicians gain from enrichment programs outside their schools, so too can adult musicians gain from programs like the Community Strings!