News
Prepare to be entertained and inspired as the award-winning New Brunswick Youth Orchestra returns to Fredericton.
This group of talented musicians will be in the city from Nov. 15-17 and will be performing on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. at Le Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne. This is the second concert of the 2013-14 season.
'The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra is probably one of Canada's most foremost and certainly most accomplished youth orchestras,' says Don Matheson, executive director of the orchestra.
The orchestra has been nominated for three ECMAs in the last half dozen years or more, he says, and won in the classical recording of the year category in 2008.
'The youth orchestra competed internationally at Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna in July of 2011 and won the symphony competition,' he says.
The orchestra is conducted by the dashing and dynamic Antonio Delgado, says Matheson.
'He came to us in 2010 after 25 years with the world-famous El Sistema program in Venezuela. The kids take enormous inspiration and encouragement and dynamism from the leadership that Tony provides,' he says.
Every concert the youth orchestra performs is a preparation for its planned return to international competition in the summer of 2014, says Matheson, when it returns to Vienna in July 2014 for the international festival.
'And this season, we're on the eve of our 50th anniversary season, so we're very excited to be commissioning an original composition which we plan to use as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the First World War,' he says. 'That piece will be learned and performed for our international competition.' It's an exciting time for the orchestra and the students who make up its talented ranks.
'We've got over 80 members in the orchestra this year from all corners of the province, and the biggest contingent of Fredericton-area members in recent memory. They are actually in almost every instrument group,' says Matheson.
The members from Fredericton and surrounding areas include: violinists Jinwon Jang, Jacqueline Murray, Sarah Song, Tai Toner, Jinmyung Jang, Sumyung Jang, Sidney Murgatroyd and Natasha Nel; violists Lelia Fekete and Sion Kim; cellist Michael Leger; bassist Jin Hyuk (Sean) Park; clarinetists Yong Hyun (Ryan) Kim, David (Sung-Ho) Kwon and Luc Vaillancourt; bassoonist Nicolas Richard; trumpeter Keelin Howe; trombonist David Cooper; and percussionist Brendan Corey.
One of the co-concertmasters, which is like a team captain, is also from Fredericton. Sienna Cho is a violinist and a Grade 11 student at Leo Hayes High School.
'She's a very accomplished young musician,' says Matheson. 'We're very proud that she's again going to lead and be one of our international music ambassadors when the orchestra is on tour. ' This is her fourth season with the orchestra, says Sienna.
'When I first started, I was at the very back of the section, I was second violin and I had the opportunity to improve and audition throughout the season,' she says, which led to better positions in the orchestra.
'Our conductor is really, really talented and amazing, and we learn so much from him. Every rehearsal we learn from our friends and guest musicians,' she says. 'It's amazing how there is always more to learn.' Sienna says she's having a lot of fun being part of the orchestra and can't wait each month to meet up with her fellow members.
'We all have shared interests and we talk about music and play music. It's really fun,' she says.
Her favourite part is when the full orchestra plays together.
'We have sectionals, which would be strings playing together and winds separately. It's just so great when everyone is playing together, making full sound,' she says.
Sienna is looking forward to playing in Fredericton for friends and family on Sunday.
'It was unfortunate to not play in Fredericton last year, so I'm more excited to play in my hometown,' she says.
In addition to their work with the youth orchestra, in the past four years more than 50 orchestra members have taken turns as volunteer teachers and mentors in the Sistema New Brunswick program.
'Sistema is our free after-school orchestral music program, which is primarily for vulnerable children,' says Matheson. 'We currently have centres operating in Moncton, Saint John, Richibucto and now our newest centre on the Tobique First Nation.' Five days a week for three hours after school, the Sistema centres provide professional music instruction in an ensemble setting.
'The kids are learning orchestral music in every instrument, and we have over 500 children that are currently part of our Sistema program,' he says. 'So when you add the Sistema kids to our New Brunswick Youth Orchestra roster, the provincial team, we're over 600 young musicians that are playing orchestral music in New Brunswick.' Having that opportunity makes a profound difference in the lives of young musicians.
'They not only learn a skill, they not only develop the self-confidence that comes from being accomplished in something, but in orchestral music, it's always based on an ensemble, a team. So rather that being solo or individual performances where they're preoccupied with themselves, they learn the attributes of teamwork, of co-operation, of a mutual respect that go with being part of an orchestral ensemble,' says Matheson.
'Classical music is our foundation.
We do learn and perform contemporary music every season so that our kids get exposure to not just learning and performing great classical orchestral works, but folk and contemporary music that appeals to the broad base of population in every community where we rehearse and perform.' Another aspect of the NBYO program that they're proud of is how they make connections in every community where the orchestra rehearses and performs.
'We engage with families who host and billet members of the orchestra, so our youth orchestra members get a chance to meet people in the community, befriend them and in many ways we're taken into their homes and often taken into their hearts,' says Matheson. 'Those people become interested, invested patrons of our youth orchestra, and love to come and hear the kids perform.' Tickets for the Nov. 17 show at Le Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne are $20 for general admission, $10 for students.
