SportsZone: Layla Joshi

Layla Joshi is making beautiful music both on and off the tennis court at Penn Charter. 

In the mind of Layla, an accomplished PC sophomore, there are plenty of similarities between her two passions of tennis and music – specifically, the organ, which she picked up in 2019 after years on the piano. 

Layla is primarily a doubles player on the tennis court, and like playing in a band or orchestra, each person in a doubles partnership has their own set of responsibilities and skills. The collective only works when players – in music or sport – drop selfish pursuits in favor of working together toward a common goal. 

Both ventures, Layla proclaims, start with a routine. Something as simple as a pre-match or pre-performance trip to Starbucks to get the mindset right. “A lot of it,” she said, “is to make myself as comfortable as possible and try not to overthink it. I try to focus on myself as opposed to what could happen. I trust my instincts.”

Another aspect of convergence between sport and music is the importance of practice and repetition. The countless hours of quiet preparation that occur leading up to a big tennis match, or weeks spent focusing on a single piece of music to get the sound just right. 

“Why I practice so much is so I don’t have to think about it,” when the big moment on the court or stage finally arrives, Layla said. “Once you slip into that mode, it’s not even nerve-wracking anymore. You’ve already started doing it, and now you’re in your element.”

Layla took up both tennis and music as a means to bond with her family. Joshi’s mother played tennis in high school, and her father learned the sport to play it with his wife and one of Layla’s grandfathers. 

“I was raised on tennis,” said Layla, who first picked up a racket around kindergarten. “It was our family sport and one of the main ways we’d spend time together – my mom and dad including me in their big kid stuff. Once I was good enough to hit with them, I wanted to be good enough to play with everybody.”

Over time, Layla started making friends via tennis, which appealed to her more than a sport like lacrosse, which she has played but doesn’t care much for the constant sprinting. Tennis, to her, is more tactical and cerebral, with each movement on the court having a clear purpose, not unlike notes in a symphony.

Layla has worked with both PC junior Jordan Simon and senior Bridgitte Gold as doubles partners, and through Monday, the Quakers had posted an 8-5 overall record with a 6-4 mark in Inter-Ac play. With just three regular season matches left in her sophomore season, Layla and the Quakers are zeroing in on their second consecutive winning season under second-year head coach Rob Isaacs. 

Tennis has helped make her first two years of high school enjoyable for Layla, who enrolled at PC in sixth grade after attending public school in her hometown of Moorestown, N.J. And as much as she identifies as an athlete, Layla is equally driven by her love of music. Like her chosen sport, music always was a bonding agent in the Joshi household, with Layla describing her dad as a singer, pianist and violinist, while her mom also sings and plays the piano. Layla and her brother started on the piano and stayed with it for years, until Layla started finding herself intrigued by the organ during the pandemic when everybody was seeking out new interests and challenges to fill the time.

Layla has participated in band and jazz band endeavors – she plays the organ in pit orchestra – while a PC student and has even played piano during an Upper School Meeting for Worship. But the organ has opened up even more doors for her. Thanks to some nudging from her choir teacher, Layla and the organ were the perfect match. 

“I immediately fell in love,” she said. “I started taking lessons and I didn’t stop.”

As she learned more pieces, Layla began playing the organ during hymns for her congregation at the First Presbyterian Church of Moorestown, a completely new type of pressure and challenge.

“A hymn is a key to the congregation, so it has to be perfect,” Layla said. “You’re leading all of these people in a song that they know better than you, and yet you’re playing it for 200 people, which is still crazy to me. It’s an amazing experience.”

Soon, Layla found herself entering organ-playing competitions around the country, including events like the David Dubois Organ Competition at Rider University’s Westminster Choir College; the L. Cameron Johnson Memorial Organ Competition in Storrs, Conn.; and the American Guild of Organists’ Young Organist Competition in Columbia, S.C. She’s finished as high as second place in Columbia and third place at both Storrs and Columbia, usually with a scholarship and/or cash prize attached.

Most recently, Layla competed at the National High School Organ Competition at the Baylor University School of Music in Waco, Texas on Oct. 5. She and her family flew to Houston and took a tour of Rice University before driving to Waco and participating in the competition with nine other contestants. She prepared three pieces – a Bach, a contrasting piece and a hymn – and played her program for a panel of judges, ultimately finishing in fifth place. 

As with tennis, in music competitions Layla finds inner serenity by focusing on what she can control and not the outcomes that might happen. “I trust my instincts,” she said. “It’s why I practice so much, so I don’t have to think about it. During the performance you slip into that mode where you are in your element.”

Layla is grateful for her athletic and musical ventures alike, as they have made her a more confident person grounded by her multiple passions. While still just a sophomore, she said she would like to study organ performance in college, in addition to her desire to become an orthopedic surgeon. Along with her love of tennis and playing music, Layla’s desire to become a doctor comes from her surgeon father and radiologist mother, and landing at a school like Penn Charter has only strengthened her desire to give back to others. 

“I’ve grown up with the sense that the most important thing a person can do is help somebody else,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to live any other way.”

Until she one day becomes a doctor, Layla will keep giving her heart to both tennis and her music. She said a personal goal of hers is to win one of these organ competitions, while her tennis goals are more team-oriented: help the Quakers become an even more competitive program in the extremely difficult and talented Inter-Ac. 

“I think it’s amazing that I get to do everything I have an interest in and I can find an outlet for those interests at my school,” Layla said. “I love it here.”

– Ed Morrone OPC ’04