For some of these students, just the rehearsals very nearly doubled their peer interaction for the year.
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Now in its sixth year, the Riverina Conservatorium of Music's Combined Schools Concert saw up to 150 budding musicians fill up the outdoor stage.
Coming from six different schools around the region, for the more isolated classrooms, a gathering of 150 students would be close to unseen.
"All of these schools have their own band program, but some of these schools are so small their bands don't have too many instruments," said conservatorium tutor and concert organiser Jenny Binovec.
"They then get to play [alongside] instruments they've never played with before.
"They get to be able to say they've made music with 150 others, and that's not something a lot of musicians can say."
Each of the six schools spent weeks preparing three chosen songs to be performed together on Friday in the open air outside the Conservatorium near Charles Sturt University.
Most of the schools have been involved with the concert from its inception, but this year boasted the arrival of Tumut's Franklin Public School.
The small school joined Tumut Public School, who attended last year, in becoming the first to participate from outside Wagga.
With the students coming from years three to six, Ms Binovec said the concert is something of a confidence-building "safety in numbers" affair.
"Some of them have only just started learning their instruments, but others have been doing this for a while," Ms Binovec said.
"That's something great about playing with 150 musicians, if you're not strong the others will carry you. The younger students can still be involved even if they don't know all the notes or can't play them all."