AYO Autumn Season 2023

AYO Autumn Season 2023 On April the 14th, The Australian Youth Orchestra lit up the Perth concert hall with an electrifying performance of Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony and the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th Symphony. In the beginning of April, The best youth musicians from the ages of 14-25 across Australia came together in Perth to form the Australian Youth Orchestra. I was lucky enough to be a part of this orchestra after having been successful with my audition I filmed last year in October. For one week we would undertake both intense and exhilarating rehearsals in UWA for a week, perfecting the artistic ambition from Shostakovich and Mahler and the emotion that they evoked through their symphonies. Both pieces were certainly both demanding of strong musicianship, requiring heavy emotions and almost perfect cohesion. The rehearsals started on the night of the 9th of April. The first rehearsal was quite nerve-racking, especially as Winthrop Hall is very large and can be quite intimidating as it is very exposed and audible. However, our conductor Eivind Aadland made us feel very welcomed with his humbleness and soon we played more into the space and played with more musicality. The first rehearsal was followed by a quick briefing and introduction to the week explaining the code of conduct and other important information, this was then followed by dinner. At the first night, the coach arrived to take us back to our accomodation (Nesuto Apartments by Mounts Bay Rd) at 8:00 pm, where us under 18’s would have to sign in at 8:30 pm for a curfew. (Out of the 74 participants, there was only 7 of us). After arriving back at the apartment we received our room keys and were able to settle into our rooms. My room was located on the second floor, which I shared with another musician who played the viola. The rooms were quite spacious, providing a kitchen, bathroom, couch, all the essentials… Winthrop Hall Rehearsals On day 2, I woke up at 6 am, going downstairs for a breakfast early at 6:30. I had some time to walk to Kings Park in the morning before having to leave on the coach to UWA at 9:00 am. Day 2 and day 3 were probably the most demanding, with 3 sessions throughout the day, each around 3 hours long. The first session was a string sectional with our conductor, working first on the Mahler (as it does not include any woodwind, brass or percussion). The next session was a violin 1 tutorial with Shaun-Lee-Chen where we read through the Shostakovich. It was quite nerve-racking playing in the small group as any wrong mistakes (notes or timing) could be heard very audibly given the compact, reverberant room we were situated in. I felt very privileged to be able to hear everyone else play up close, experiencing the sound we made as a section, (it was scary how in tune every-one else was). I learnt many valuable skills from the sectional, Shaun being very welcoming, creating a safe space for mistakes. I think the most valuable thing I learnt from the session was to always play confidently (make your practice worthwhile) with expression, and that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you’re trying to make the best sound possible. After the tutorial I joined my other friends for dinner at the UnderCroft, before attending the final tutti rehearsal for the day at 7 pm. After the rehearsal, we reached the apartments at 10:00 pm and as soon as I got back I knocked out. Before I knew it I was halfway through the week with day 3. This day was a repeat of day 2, with the same scheduling. Again we worked on the Mahler in the morning before going out for lunch. I then attended the second tutorial with Shaun Lee Chen, where we worked on the Mahler. I found that it takes time to sound together as a section with the Mahler. When we all listened and played together as a section the sound was incredibly beautiful. I was glad that I had practiced variations of shifting and positioning for the same passages in the Mahler as there are many different interpretations of the piece. As a section it was decided thaw e would be playing most lines on the g string which is quite difficult, however produces a different sound to playing on a different string (d or a string). This tutorial opened up new possibilities to section playing and how carefully you have to listen to others so that you don’t accidentally start playing in your own world. With the tutorial finishing early, I attended dinner and the tutti rehearsal at 7 pm arriving at the apartments at 10:00pm. Again, as soon as I got back I was knocked out from exhaustion. .Day 4 was the first day that featured less rehearsals, and also a weather cross where I would be featured on channel 10. Throughout the day there were 2 tutti rehearsals which were 3 hours each. At the end of the second tutti rehearsal the whole orchestra was featured in a live segment on the channel 9 news. After the second rehearsal, everyone else expect for myself and the first desks of each section stayed back for an additional segment. I was interviewed as I was one of of the only Perth participants admitted into the program (the only one u18). At 5:55 pm I went live being asked impromptu questions about the orchestra and my contributions alongside my life as a musician. The live interview remains one of the most memorable experiences of my life, being streamed nation-wide live. It was certainly a nerve-racking experience (as many things can go wrong on live television). However, it was a moment which I will never take for granted. After the interview, our orchestra manager drove the other musicians and myself back to the apartments where I went out for dinner and celebrated the day. Channel 10 Interview You can also catch

AYO Winter Season 2023

AYO Winter Season 2023 From the 3rd – 11th of July in 2023, I had the pleasure of working alongside the Australian Youth Orchestra for their Winter Seasons concert held in Sydney & Canberra. The program featured an intensive week long program filled with rehearsals, sectionals and tutorials based around the Sydney metro area. For the week we rehearsed our concert repetoire which featured a collection of pieces composed by Nigel Westlake. These included ‘The Glass Soldier Suite’, ‘Beneath The Waves’ from Blueback and ‘Ngapa William Cooper’. Most excitingly, the performances of ‘Beneath the Waves’ and ‘Ngapa William Cooper’ would be the orchestral premieres of the two pieces with ‘Beneath the Waves’ featuring cello soilist Sharon Grigoryan and ‘Ngapa William Cooper’ featuring vocal soilists Lior and Lou Bennett.   A typical day in the program started with a Violin 1 tutorial at 10:00am-12:30pm in the Australian Performing Arts Grammar School. These tutorials were taken under the guidance of Madeline Easton, an incredible violinist and creative artist. Through these tutorials we learnt valuable skills and tips from Madeline and had the opportunity to go through our part as a section. It was great to see how refined our playing as a section had become after many of us had previously gone through the Autumn Season program in April. After the tutorials we would head out to buy lunch before making our way to the ABC studio for a strings sectional at 2:00-4:30pm. These rehearsals were conducted under the baton of Fabian Russell, the principal conductor of ‘The Orchestra Project.’ These sections of the program allowed each part of the string section (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Harp) to come together and test out the knowledge we had learnt and the sections we had worked on into a bigger group. Here, Fabian pointed out and guided us through passages which were not quite refined, allowing us to further enhance our sound as the string section. accomodation accomodation view lunch break After finishing sectionals, we would go out and buy dinner (usually Malatang). After eating we headed back to the ABC studios for a a tutti (whole orchestra) rehearsal from 7-9:30pm. Although the first few tutti rehearsals were conducted by Fabian, towards the end of the week they were taken by Nigel Westlake himself, as he would be conducting us on the nights of the concerts. Nigel is an incredibly talented Australian composer, conductor and musician who has composed music for movies such as movies such as Babe, Blueback and Paper Planes. The tutti rehearsals were always the last rehearsals of the day, (until later in the week when we had multiple tutti rehearsals in a day). They were the final piece in the puzzel where each section in the orchestra had spent the first parts of the day individually workshopping in their instrumental groups and sections and now were coming together to rehearse as a whole orchestra. During the last two tutti rehearsals of the day we were joined by the soloists Sharon, Lior and Lou. When we first ran through the pieces with the soloists it was breathtaking as finally we had the full orchestration for the performance. These sections of the day were my favourite as the orchestra would make an incredibly professional and refined sound after working hard all day on the pieces. It really felt like all the hard work paid off.       Finally, at the end of the week we performed our repertoire in two concerts. The first concert took place on the 9th of July at the ANU Llewellyn Hall in Canberra. Before shortly heading back to Sydney and back to our accomodations. The second concert took place the next day on the 10th of July at the Sydney Opera House. Both concerts were a huge success and received a massive round of applause. Playing alongside the AYO was definitely a momentous experience in my musical career and was an exciting opportunity being able to perform newly comissioned works being heard for the first time. Throughout the program I met many new friends and was able to meet some of my old friends from previous AYO programs. I gained a lot of experience playing alongside musicians my age and would love to continue working with other musicians around Australia going into the future. The AYO Winter Season was definitely a highlight of my musical career. The program to the concert can be found through this link : Ngapa William Cooper   concert at ANU masterclass with Andrew Haveron (concertmaster of the SSO) backstage at the Sydney Opera House Ngapa William Cooper Concert