(This week's guest blogger is Adam Brown, Fox Valley Symphony Youth Orchestra's Philharmonia conductor.)
This is my third year as conductor of the Philharmonia, and
each year has offered its own unique combination of successes, challenges, and
opportunities for the students to grow as an orchestra. When I first entered
the position in late spring 2012, the students had already gone through their
auditions and I hadn’t met or heard them (beyond the ones who were there for my
interview, many of whom were in the previous year’s ensemble). I had to rely on
Greg Austin’s (Concert Orchestra conductor) experience listening to them try out, as well as his experience
with the Philharmonia-level repertoire, to help me prepare for the early fall
retreat and the first concert. Greg was, and continues to be, a tremendous
resource of expertise and insight into the past performances of pieces in the FVSO
library. By around the time the students were preparing for their spring
“mini-tour,” I was finally starting to feel like I knew what I was doing, more
or less! I also knew from my years of teaching that I would soon have to start
from scratch, listening to many new members auditioning in (or up, to Concert
Orchestra). It was a bittersweet time, offering congratulations and well wishes
for good auditions that, if successful, would mean that I would no longer be
working with those students.
For the second year, I wanted to build on what I saw as a
successful first year while offering some different experiences, especially for
students who had been in Philharmonia the year before. I tried to offer more
solo opportunities, and watched students step up to leadership roles as they
challenged themselves to learn these. I also programmed a piece by a living
American composer (Magen Miller Frasier), and made the bold statement that the
orchestra could do a “distance rehearsal” using software like Skype, even before
I had tried to contact the composer! Thankfully, she was very generous with her
time and praise of the students, and even requested permission to put their
performance of her piece on her website. It was a great moment for the students
to have a direct connection with the music-making process that I hope they
always remember.
As this year began with the auditions, I was stuck by two
things: how the orchestra overall seemed a bit younger, and how incredibly
violin-heavy it was! This presented a challenge selecting repertoire that I
thought would complement the sounds and strengths of the other sections, while
also being appropriately difficult and different from the previous years. For
the first time, I chose pieces that feature guest percussionists, a role that
has been graciously filled by members of the Youth Orchestra percussion
section. I’ve also seen the smaller viola, cello, and bass sections rise to the
occasion and play with a strong, confident sound that allows for better
balance.
On days when the orchestra has sectionals (three times for each
concert cycle), I move from room to room to hear how everyone works together,
and I have been continually impressed with the maturity and work ethic the
students have shown. The coaches have expressed this much as well, and have
appreciated how much is able to be accomplished. I feel like all the hard work
and progress is helping make this first concert of the 2014-2015 season become
even more polished and excellent-sounding than the past two years!
