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Jocelyn Turner -- Miramichi Leader -- November 23, 2016
A musical weekend on the way to Miramichi is bound to please all music lovers when the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra returns to the city for a performance weekend in December.
Mariam Mesbah, director of marketing and communications for NBYO, said the orchestra, founded in 1965 in Saint John by Philip Oland, is one of the province's best kept secrets and truly shows the musical skills of youth of all ages. The orchestra includes children as young as nine through to those in high school.
"The mission of the orchestra is really to inspire children and young people to achieve potential through music, through performing particularly orchestra music, so learning to play instruments and also performing in an orchestra," she said.
Mesbah said the orchestra was founded to showcase the skills of the young people who play various instruments.
“But it really is, today, to develop an outstanding orchestra... It's really to encourage the participation of young people to understand what orchestral music looks like, to be able to appreciate it."
In past years, Mesbah said a lot of people would go out to see an orchestra perform, so today, the NBYO is an opportunity for young people to show the level of excellence that they have in terms of their musicianship, the teamwork that is required, the level of excellence and commitment that's needed to play that type of music.
From that, the marketing and communications director said they hope that the orchestra not only shows itself as being a real jewel for the province but also speaks to what can happen when you strive for excellence, what happens when you work together as a team to accomplish something.
"Many of the children, when their classmates learn that this is what they're doing in their spare time and they hear them perform and see them perform, they're in awe," she said.
Many of the young people involved in the orchestra come through the Sistema NB program, which is a program that originally started in Venezuela with the goal of teaching music to children who would normally not be able to have that opportunity.
Children also learn to achieve excellence, hard work and how to try and affect social change. Mesbah said the program there is extreme popular and has seen thousands of children who have gone through it. The program itself, she added, affects social change, particularly for very impoverished children.
"In New Brunswick, we applied the same program - in 2008/2009 was when we started - and we had 50 children learning in Beaverbrook School in Moncton," said Mesbah. "Now, we have nearly 1,000 kids in eight centres across the province, all of whom are learning music, playing all kinds of instruments and in keeping with the spirit of the Venezuelan program, we teach them every day, they learn every day.”
Mesbah said most students, including the Sistema students in Miramichi, are practicing for two to three hours every day after school five days a week.
“So you can imagine those children, they started at six to learn the violin, or cello, percussion or woodwinds... by nine or 10, a lot of them are practically orchestra ready. I mean, they're playing at a level that is fantastic. A lot of children who are in this New Brunswick Youth Orchestra have hailed from that program."
For the performance weekend, the orchestra will be in Miramichi Dec. 2-4 with a final performance for the community on Sunday Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. at James M. Hill School.
"It's a real treat to see them perform and I think the residents of Miramichi will really enjoy it if they take the time to come out and see it. They will be in awe of what our province's young people are capable of and what they've been doing," she said.
Gabrielle Carruthers, originally from Miramichi, has been playing with the orchestra since she was in Grade 10. Now 17 years-old, the student said playing with the orchestra has been amazing. Carruthers said she decided to get involved with the orchestra after it was mentioned to her by her music teacher at the time.
"It's fantastic (touring the province)... You make so many friends because it's people that have the same interests and you get to play and make music together, it's almost magical," said the tuba player.
She said it’s great to get younger generations into classical music and she knows how inspiring it can be to see the orchestra perform at a young age.
“I love knowing that little kids look up to us and they want to be us one day and more and more of them because Sistema (NB) plays a big part in it and it's nice to see that it's growing too."
The performance weekend in Miramichi is one of four taking place across the province this season (throughout fall and winter). The theme of the concert weekend is inspiring excellence and attendees are going to hear some very familiar music such as musicians that they've heard before in terms of their musical style, but they will also hear some surprises.
Alongside the performance, Mesbah said the orchestra is also looking for billet host families. Host families do not need to have children in the program but will be housing two youth from the orchestra. The families are required to pick the musicians up and drop them off at the high school, provide breakfast on Saturday and Sunday as well as a packed lunch on Sunday. The orchestra seeks out host families every where they go.
"They arrive on Friday evening. There's a bit of team building involved and they spend the weekend practising and learning different things and getting together and in the evening, they usually get together for a nice dinner and then Sunday, they perform," said Mesbah. "It's quite a fun event. The next one after that is going to take place in Moncton so it's really the only time we're going to be in Miramichi this season.”
Mesbah said she encourages anyone to come and check out the weekend because it is inspiring.
"Definitely go see it because it's always fun to listen on the radio to music but to experience it live and to know that it's the young people of your province playing it is magnificent," said Carruthers. "They will be pretty impressed no doubt about it."
Those interested in being a billeting host family or looking for more information are asked to contact Don Matheson, chief operating officer, at 1-506-866-7920 or email drmatheson@nbyo-ojnb.com. Those families that billet some of the orchestra musicians receive a complimentary pair of tickets to the Sunday concert. Those interested in being a billeting family are asked to contact Matheson by the end of the week.
Tickets to the concert will be available an hour before the concert at the door or can be purchased in advance through the Boys and Girls Club, at the Brookdale Flower Shop as well as Scott's Pharmasave. Adults are $20 and students are $10.
