The orchestra rouses and swells at Sandra Ragusa’s impassioned command, more than 40 musicians surging toward crescendos and flitting through the many-layered melodies of Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D Major.

Ragusa tackles the composition in fits and starts, deconstructing the flourishes, honing in on a measure here, a bar there, rooting out whatever offense that might have caught her exacting ear.

Barely five weeks are left to fine-tune the performance in time for quite possibly the biggest show that either Watkins Mill or the Montgomery Philharmonic have played—and Mozart’s 38th isn’t exactly easy to pull off at the high school level. But the 16 students strewn throughout the ensemble have come a long way since Ragusa took them under her wing.

"They’re developing professional types of demeanor with the music," she said. "An attitude is developing in them. Their technique, their skills are really coming up."

The May 1 concert has been more than a year in the making. The effort traces back to when Doug Woodruff—who had just become Watkins Mill’s instrumental director—joined the Gaithersburg-based philharmonic. Ragusa, the philharmonic’s music director, took an interest in mentoring Woodruff, which in turn gave rise to the philharmonic “adopting” Watkins Mill’s music program last year.

Upwards of 700 music-lovers are expected to fill Watkins Mill's Timothy O'Shea Auditorium the night of the concert, which will benefit the music program and PTSA. Watkins Mill musicians will begin the concert on their own, then join the philharmonic to play Mozart’s 38th and Aaron Copland's "Rodeo," followed by a few pieces by the philharmonic alone.

Woodruff and Ragusa hope to make it an annual performance, complemented by smaller projects throughout the year. Already, the collaboration is opening new ground for both sides.

For Watkins Mill, it has given Woodruff an invaluable boost as he tries to breathe new life into the music program.

"We’re starting to find our sound, to really discover what we can do with our strings program," he said. "And on the instrumental side, we’re really starting to have a rebirth of the program. … I really hope that this partnership will help bring some more music into the program and give us that growth that we can have."

And for the philharmonic, it provides a bigger platform from which to reach for their goals for the upcounty, where high art is in short supply.

"It’s our mission to bring symphonic music to northern Montgomery," Ragusa said. "The word ‘amateur’ means for the love of something. So it’s the love of music, and it’s at the highest form."