Read the story at "There's a new youth orchestra in town--4, actually--because parents refused to lose their leader" in The Charlotte Observer (11/15/18), by clicking here.
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| Mary (10) at her first orchestral performance |
The YOC performed at the exquisite 1020-seat Halton Theater, and I share some photos taken from online to show the venue in all its glory. For a mama who rarely gets out of the house, it sure was lovely to dress up in sparkly clothes (albeit my voluminous I-just-had-a-baby-clothing 15 months later!) and feel like an adult.
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| Halton Theater, source online |
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| Halton Theater, source online |
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| Halton Theater, source online |
When I pointed out to Mary's violin teacher, who was seated with us, that some cute, rascally girl musicians were peaking out from back stage to view the audience ahead of time--"Oh look! They're so short and little!"--I should have anticipated finding out later that my Mary was one of those four adventurers. Those who know her will not be surprised.
Typically, I don't start teaching my baby to be put to bed even by his own daddy till around 18 months and don't start leaving him with an outside babysitter till 24 months or later, but this event was so special that I hired a sitter and left 15-month-old David . . . and without even his crew of oldest siblings or his Second Mommy Mary to help! I was quite nervous until the babysitter texted me that he had gone to sleep easily.
The YOC is made up of four groups. We noted that about 20% of the 200 musicians are homeschooled, which does result in a chicken-and-egg question of whether they homeschool in order to achieve this excellence or whether they found themselves achieving this excellence because they were already homeschooling. I can say from personal experience that even at our young children's level of musical studies, it would be incredibly difficult to maintain this on an institutional school schedule. We employ three music teachers four hours per week teaching piano, violin, theory, and technique, and, for example, Mary alone practices 90 minutes per day plus her theory studies, all on top of a full academic schedule and playing two sports. The level of accomplishment that these high-school students are achieving probably requires two to four hours of practice daily. The 15-year-old choirmaster of the Youth Orchestra (see video far below) also travels for her music education, traveling to an expert in California and traveling to Julliard in NYC every few weeks. At some point, I assume many parents would need to pull their children out of institutional school (into homeschool) to pursue this kind of specialized education. It has been educational for me as a still fairly new "music parent" to see what kind of studies and commitment are required for the kind of musical accomplishments one sees on stage.
Back to my description of last night, the flute ensemble (of high-school aged musicians) first performed several pieces, and then Sinfonia Strings, the ensemble of mostly upper elementary students to which Mary belongs, performed.
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| The co-directors of Sinfonia Strings |
The theme this fall was Americana music. I am more impressed with the Sinfonia Strings now that I've watched just how many months and how much hard work is required to transform students from a group of soloist musicians (which is what these kids are for many years) to orchestral musicians: blending, disappearing, becoming one voice. So, while the next two levels of orchestra truly took our breath away, I now see why it takes so many years and levels--starting at a small ensemble like this one--to reach those higher levels of performance.
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| Photo courtesy: Markus Kuncuro |
Mary was absolutely beaming, her smile huge, the entire time she was performing.
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| Photo courtesy: Markus Kuncuro |
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| Photo courtesy: Markus Kuncuro |
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| Mary sitting with us for the second half of the show |
Third, the Preparatory Orchestra (of mostly middle school aged musicians) performed, followed by the full-sized Youth Orchestra, which I photographed below for comparison. Their sound was gloriously full compared to that of the smaller Sinfonia Strings.
Purely for your viewing pleasure, I share below Caroline Smoak, a 15-year-old homeschooler and the choirmaster (first violin) of the Youth Orchestra, performing the first movement of Barber's violin concerto. It is worth all ten minutes, in my opinion!
(N.B., at the 3:30 mark you will hear the CELL PHONE of the person sitting to our left start ringing and ring at length. Please, let us all remember, to silence, set to "do not disturb," and otherwise turn off our cell phone notifications when at performances--and to double- and triple-check ourselves. I was just sinking in my seat to think how this soloist has worked her whole life to achieve this rank and has worked on this one-time performance specifically for six months, and the thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars that went into that . . . all MARRED IRREPARABLY by somebody forgetting to turn off his cell phone.)
We arrived home after a full two-and-a-half hour of musical performance to sleeping little boys. The three- and five-year-old boys reported later that they had so much fun with Miss A---- watching a cartoon, eating a cookie, and listening to her read four whole stories ("it was like a Read-a-Thon, Mama!").
Lastly, Baby David went to sleep without any symptoms but woke up with a 101-degree fever, so I thank God for the graces that David did not become sick just a few hours earlier, which would have caused me to stay home with him instead of getting to watch Mary!
