Top Phish guitarist playing with Vermont Youth Orchestra January 29, 2001 - Associated Press by Wilson Ring BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Sitting near the conductor in the band practice room at Burlington High School, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio rehearsed with the 85 musicians of the Vermont Youth Orchestra. As Anastasio plucked the chords of the new work "Chat Rooms," there was nothing to indicate that the leader of one of the most popular rock bands in the world was anything other than just one of the musicians. And everyone agrees, he wasn't. "The first day I came here and sat down I was nervous," Anastasio said during a break from his warm up before Sunday's rehearsal. "I knew there were 15-year-old oboe players who could outplay me." Since that first rehearsal last fall, Anastasio and the young musicians have been hammering out the new piece that is a combination of rock, jazz and classical that will be publicly performed for the first time Friday in Troy, N.Y. Two days later the orchestra will perform the same concert at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington. Both performances are sold out. Another piece the orchestra will perform is "Guyute," an orchestra version of a composition that Anastasio wrote during a trip to Ireland in 1992. It's the first time that one of Anastasio's orchestral compositions will be performed. The guitar solos in "Chat Rooms" were written specifically for Anastasio, whose melding of classical influences into rock helped make Phish one of the most popular rock 'n' roll bands in the world. "Somehow in colonial America we separated great art from street art," said Cornwall composer Ernie Stires, who wrote "Chat Rooms." Stires was one of Anastasio's teachers from before the creation of Phish. The experience has also given the young musicians, none older than high school age, the chance to work up close with Anastasio, who is as happy to work with them as the teen-agers are to get to know a rock 'n' roll legend. He's taken some of the young musicians to his rural Chittenden County recording studio where they have worked out the details of some of the music that will be performed this weekend. "I love it," Anastasio said. "I like working with young musicians who are enthusiastic." The enthusiasm has rubbed off on the young people, too. "I never would have guessed I would have done something like this," said Jane Kittredge, a 15-year-old violin player from Middlesex. "He is really nice. He is so fun to work with. He's an incredible person. He's so easy to talk to." And it's more than just enthusiasm for a superstar. "We are so classically trained. It's just a whole different realm of music," said Rueben Baris, a 17-year-old French horn player from Fletcher. The VYO has a tradition of performing a new composition every year. Now the orchestra is hoping to expand that tradition by commissioning a new piece every year by a Vermont composer, said VYO executive director Caroline Whiddon. Stires' "Chat Room" was the first commissioned work the VYO will perform. Stires suggested writing the piece for Anastasio, who has a history of working with young musicians. Anastasio was first approached about working with the VYO last fall by conductor Troy Peters. Anastasio had just come back from what might have been Phish's final tour and he was ready for something else. "This is exactly what I wanted to do," he said. "I wanted to write more music and be with my family." The Friday performance at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall is a benefit for the orchestra's $2 million capital campaign to turn an old riding hall at St. Michael's College in Colchester into its permanent home.