The End - By Natasha Conrau

Well, what a few days it has been. On Tuesday we began rehearsing in the Opera House and also got to rehearse Carl Vine’s Violin Concerto with our soloist, Dene Olding. Having only rehearsed the orchestral accompaniment, it was great to finally have the solo violin part to put the textures and harmonies into context, and hear the complete work. I was quite flabbergasted at the way Dene casually and calmly smashed the living daylights out of this piece (in a good way!). I was particularly amazed by a small passage of artificial harmonics in the slow movement; they’re not the easiest thing for string players to execute, but Dene managed to make it sound incredibly beautiful and very easy. How lucky we are to be premiering a work with a musician like him! Another privilege was having Carl Vine himself at the rehearsals for his work, as well as the Hon. Jane Matthews AO, who commissioned the piece.

 

  Then on Wednesday came what we’ve all be working towards – our first concert. AYO concerts are always surrounded by a lot of energy, excitement and nerves. This one was no different, however, for the majority of the orchestra's members it was their first time performing in the Opera House, marking it as quite a special occasion. The concert went quite literally without a hitch as we’ve rehearsed so much in the past week. Maestro Dausgaard has this amazing ability to make everyone feel completely calm, so we were able to really ‘go for it’ and fully enjoy this opportunity to play in Australia’s most iconic concert hall. As our concerts are a part of the Sydney Symphony’s ‘Meet the Music’ series, there were many younger audience members and the night concluded with some incredibly loud cheering, a few screams, and a lot of applause.  

 

  In less than 24 hours we are going to have to rejoin the real world and go back home. It’s been such a great ten days that I will be incredibly reluctant to board my plane tomorrow and have to say goodbye to all my AYO friends (the ONE downside to AYO programs!). So in the meantime I am going to savour the time I have left with everyone and play my heart out in the two concerts we have left. Farewell AYO Season Two!

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AYO JULY SEASON CONTINUES - MEETING DAUSGAARD

Day 5  - by Natasha Conrau

 

 

It’s been a busy few days full of tutorials, sectionals, tutti rehearsals and a whole lot of walking to and from the ABC. After a few late nights of hard work on the Nielsen and Debussy, we had a free night and a large proportion of AYO-ers took this opportunity to go to the Sydney Symphony's concert at the Opera House. In the first half we heard Sibelius’s Violin Concerto played by a young Armenian violinist by the name of Sergey Khachatryan, who completely stunned me with his drama and intensity, which he upheld throughout the whole concerto. I've never seen vibrato that fast! In the second half the Sydney Symphony performed selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, which is a nostalgic favourite of mine as I used to listen to it frequently as a child. The Sydney Symphony's performance was quite something and I left feeling elated and musically inspired, as many of my fellow AYO audience members did.

 

 

 

  The next morning we met our conductor for the season, Thomas Dausgaard. He immediately engaged us with the way he spoke, especially with his intriguing accent that one could almost mistake as English (he’s Danish!). As an introduction, he gave us a small part of his insight into Nielsen’s legacy in Denmark and the significance of such a composer in a small population of 5 million. This made me realize just how lucky we are to be playing this music in a city so far from where it was written, yet conducted by someone with such a close connection to and understanding of the composer's music. When we began playing the Nielsen, I was struck by the way he so precisely communicated what he wanted without saying a thing. His facial expressions and theatrical body language indicated the exact character, emotion, phrasing and articulation he wanted throughout the work. When we got to La Mer, so many moments I had been unsure of how to play were suddenly easy and logical. He quite vividly brought the music to life in such a short period of time and I await the next rehearsal with a ridiculous amount of anticipation!

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AYO JULY SEASON BEGINS!

Day 1  - By Natasha Conrau

 

The first day of my AYO season began in the usual fashion – a trip to Melbourne Airport, a brief argument with the automatic bag drop at check in, then through security to the gate lounge where I was cheerfully greeted by Bonnie Williams and Rhianwen Bramble. A very lovely start to the first day! Upon arriving in Sydney, the Melbourne crowd joined a bevy of musicians milling around outside the airport, all smiling and chattering profusely. I saw a lot of old AYO friends around, however, the majority of the faces were new to me. We were then driven to The Women’s College to get acquainted with our temporary home and were given a ‘briefing’ for the season by our lovely AYO staff. Dinner consisted of the usual college food – interesting to look at, with some fascinating fluro coloured drinks to go with it. We’re quite lucky that our accommodation is in Newtown, right near some great Thai restaurants that will no doubt be frequented this week (including my personal favourite “Thai Riffic”).

 

  The last thing on the agenda was a rehearsal in Eugene Goossens hall. I sat down next to my deskie, Leigh Thompson, who also happens to be my oldest AYO friend attending this season – a very nice coincidence. We ran through Nielsen’s Symphony No.5 and Vine’s Violin Concerto. The Nielsen contains one incredibly long unison passage for the string section. Prior to the rehearsal I heard a lot of comments like “how are we possibly going to play it that fast, in unison, in tune, and make it sound good?” Fabian Russell very kindly took it at a reasonable ‘first rehearsal speed’ and while it was definitely a tad messy, the terror was lifted. It did, however, reveal just how much work we’re going to have to do to get this polished in just a week. And the challenge begins!

 

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AYO Young Symphonists - 2012

AYO 2012 Applications are now open. It's been a very busy time for all at AYO as we've been busily putting together the programs, repertoire conductors and tutors who are set to make AYO 2012 such a fantastic year.  Each day we'll post our videos up here of our programs for 2012. We thought it would be a great way for you guys to see a bit more about what happens on programs and grab some firsthand information about being part of the AYO. First up is the AYO Young Symphonists Program, with Marielle Allen, French Horn

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A rehearsal by any other name: the nature of the dress

After spending the previous day on a bus from Adelaide to Melbourne (except those tripping the light fantastic- see previous post), our musicians would have been understandably keen to spend today experiencing the delights of the Victorian capital.   But as the first rays of the morning sun caught the spires of the Eureka Tower, a realisation also dawned- there was to be no Chapel St shopping or Yarra River strolling this morning to recoup.  A more pressing commitment awaited at the Town Hall: the dress rehearsal.

 

Dress rehearsals are strange things.  Having rehearsed a program for weeks and performed it once already, one would think that performance number two would be a relatively simple affair.  Everybody knows their part backwards, so we just walk on stage, play the concert and be home in time to catch Lateline Business. No dramas.  Not quite.

 

Each hall is different and the dress rehearsal is a chance for orchestra and conductor to come to grips with any unique and subtle acoustic differences.  Dynamics get tweaked, balances altered and even tempos might be modified to allow the orchestra to sound its best in a new hall.  Contrary to popular belief, performance dress is not required to be worn and the number of AYO T-shirts peppering the orchestra was a dead give-away as to the collective state of the orchestra's laundry.    

 

With rehearsal over, the afternoon was free to laze about, snooze, or do some frantic last minute practice on those trickier passages (as a hypothetical only).  The anticipation about tonight's concert is high, particularly for any fresh faces in the orchestra.  For many people, playing in the AYO for the first time is the realisation of a long term goal and it is this unadulterated excitement that makes AYO concerts unique.  Early tomorrow morning, participants will fly back to their home states, but with Season 2 taking place in Sydney in the middle of the year, the AYO bandwagon still has some miles to roll for 2011. Stay tuned.

 

Jack Chenoweth

Make me a Supermodel!...or failing that, an orchestral musician.

Life in the Australian Youth Orchestra is  pretty simple: rehearse, eat, sleep and perform.  But after a successful concert in Adelaide on Sunday afternoon, one group of AYO musicians jetted to Melbourne ahead of their colleagues to break this cycle. Move over the  Concertgebouw and bring on the catwalk!  These were the  models for the 2012 AYO brochure.

 

Modelling and orchestral playing are two activities that do not often intersect.  Few conductors have been known to follow statements such as 'winds, the intensity of the crescendo has to grow right through the top of the phrase' with 'and second flute, is that skirt from the 2011 Winter Prada collection?'  Today though, our musicians had the chance to form this most unusual of unions.  At a suitably urban chic warehouse in St Kilda, exasperated cries of 'this high section is so hard to play in tune' and 'I just can't get those low notes out' were replaced with 'I just wish  this hem would sit correctly' and 'these shoes really don't match my hair'.

 

For most musicians, having someone fastidiously attend to your hair and make-up would have been a novel experience after two weeks of rolling out of bed, splashing some water in the vague direction of your face and trying to make it to breakfast on time. Similar sweet relief was found in having bundles of new and fashionable outfits thrust upon you after weeks of gingerly trying to determine which T-shirt was the cleanest.  For the record, as an ex AYOer, I can confirm that donning the official AYO T-shirt was a clear sign of surrender to a mountain of dirty laundry.

 

The session today seemed to go smoothly.  The photographers seemed happy and the lunch table was attacked with expected commitment, categorically demonstrating that unhealthy body image would not be an issue for these models. Tuesday night sees them returning to what they do best and the anticipation is high amongst all players.  And the results of this foray into glamour and style?  You'll have to wait for the 2012 AYO brochure.

 

Jack Chenoweth

The Getting of Wisdom (!)

The triumphal conclusion is in sight: we’re building to the climax of our two-week musical adventure. By now, adrenalin is kicking in to take its role in keeping us all going, as we approach the challenging final stages of stuff-strutting.

For the Department of WAM, the deadlines for delivery of program notes, radio features and the Camp newsletter have by now all been, by some miracle, met, giving us the opportunity for a couple of days to reflect upon the wider context of the symbiosis of music and writing. To aid in this endeavour, we’ve met with three sterling fellows who’ve shared their insights and experience to provide us with some trajectories for future cogitation, contemplation and even action.

Mark Carroll, Music Historian and Associate Professor here at the Elder Conservatorium, presented a Schenker-like model for the task of program note writing: a layering approach, of firstly establishing our in-depth knowledge of the particular piece to be written about, then adding further dimensions of enlightening the reader and finally (last but not least) of entertaining them. Graham Strahle, Adelaide’s pre-eminent music critic, outlined the challenges and principles for approaching this important task, again emphasising the need for sound preparation and background-building, but in the context of elegantly articulating a personal response to the performance. Whether this is to be achieved by immersion or objectivity, that is the question… And Vincent Ciccarello gave us an insight into his own career path from musician to musicologist to artist manager and now, journalist – a fascinating tale of the contest between aspiration and reality and of the importance of serendipity. Vince also gave us an insight into the world of journalism, its pressurised environment and demands for balancing the hard and the soft.

All three gave splendid amplification to the themes we have been drawing out from our two chosen role models in the realm of music and words: Richard Taruskin and Alex Ross. Heroes, really, for the contemporary writer about music, and perhaps also for everyone engaged with the future of classical music. I'm seeking out a copy of Taruskin's "The Danger of Music", not to mention Bob Dylan's "Chronicles", pronto...

Thanks to Mark, Vince and Graham for their contributions to the “getting of wisdom”, supporting the students of WAM as they seek their directions for the future.

James Koehne

WAM Tutor