The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra and the North York Music Festival come together in CBSO’s next concert, Classical Christmas, on December 14. Along with holiday music, the concert will showcase the winners of the NYMF on the piano, flute and violin.
Music competitions typically only make headlines when they involve international organizations, and no small amount of prestige. But, they can be a crucial development for young musicians at the grass roots level too.
We spoke to Ella Porett, Artistic Director & Founder of the North York Music Festival, and Cathedral Bluffs conductor Martin MacDonald about the competition and the young musicians who’ll be performing alongside the orchestra.
CSBO & NYMF
Part of the Ontario Music Festivals Association, and like most such organizations, NYMF offers competition for music students at all levels, from the six and under, level 1 category to best performers overall up to age 17. It’s an important step for music students in many ways.
“It’s tremendously important for everybody involved,” says Ella. She founded NYMF, and has been leading the organization for 16 years now. Porett was working as a teacher, and also served as an examiner for the Royal Conservatory and other music festivals. “I came at it from every side,” she says. “Of course, I’m a Mom, so my child had to participate,” she laughs. It was through their experiences that she saw a gap to be filled. “I kind of saw all the things we were lacking.” That included performance opportunities.
She says the participants range in age from four to 83. Offering categories at all levels, including adult beginners, is important. “They don’t want to compete against six year olds,” she says.
Competition may seem to introduce unnecessary tension into a young musician’s progress, but the atmosphere makes all the difference. “It has to be very friendly,” Ella says. “They should feel inspired.”
It comes down to choosing the best adjudicators, those who will encourage even as they offer a critique.
Naturally, it’s the highest level candidates who enter the concerto competition — those who’ll end up performing with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra on stage.
As Ella points out, the competition opens up a world of possibility. “It’s incredibly difficult to find an opportunity to play with an orchestra,” she notes. It tends to open the doors to submissions. “It’s phenomenal,” she says of the response. Several kids from a single high school enter the competition.
For the young musicians, it’s a chance to meet their peers, and to feel part of a larger community of music-makers. Constructive and positive feedback can add to their momentum as students. As Ella points out, the competition is important for the parents too as validation of their own contributions to their child’s musical education.
”It’s building a community,” she says. Over the years, participation has grown. ”It grew exponentially up till the pandemic,” she reports. Even now, in 2024, some people, she confirms, still prefer to participate online. Full in-person participation levels haven’t yet come back.
What’s most important is playing music. “Habitually we’ll get almost 3,000 performances during the festival.”
Martin M cDonald was happy to continue Cathedral Bluffs’ longstanding association with the festival. “It’s a big part of the mandate of the CSBO is to promote young talent,” he says. “It’s one of the pillars of our mission.”
After taking over as music director of CSBO in 2022, he says Ella was one of the first people to get in touch. “It was a long association.”
It’s the level of talent that surprised him. “I still remember adjudicating for the first time, and being blown away,” he says. As he points out, CSBO is a community orchestra, but one that plays on a high level. “You also want a young soloist to be comfortable with playing in front of an orchestra,” he says. They get a taste of performing with an entity that feels far bigger than they are on stage.
Adjudicating the competition can make for some marathon sessions. He says that it was just under 12 straight hours last year. “But it was worth every minute of it.
It was so hard to choose from.”
Naturally, the majority of the participants are young pianists, including winner 10 year old Alice Wang, who’ll be performing the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K. 271.
Other winners are Karen Kobayashi on the flute, who’ll play the 1st movement of Mozart’s Flute Concert No. 2 in D major, K. 314, and violinist Ophir Strumpf, who’ll perform the 2nd movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35.
“The numbers were high, and the talent was high,” MacDonald says.
“It’s a real springboard for the kids who play at that level,” Ella adds. They’ll get a taste of what it is to be a soloist in an orchestral setting. “This is career building.”
Martin hadn’t done a lot of adjudicating prior to his experience with NYMF. He mentions how it can help develop the aspirations of a young musician, and help them decide on what path they’d like to pursue. Is playing as a soloist for them? Or do they prefer to be part of the orchestra?
“I think we really provide a warm environment,” he says.
Classical Christmas
Along with the concerto showcase for the competition winners, the upcoming concert includes a couple of holiday classics that aren’t often found on local programs. That includes Coleridge-Taylor’s Christmas Overture, and selections from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, along with excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite symphonique, op. 60, is also on the program.
With a base of volunteer players, and paid professional section heads, MacDonald says he recognizes the importance of creating a good experience for the musicians of the orchestra. “They want to play music with some meat to its bones,” he says.
He mentions the lush romanticism of Coleridge-Taylor’s setting of traditional Christmas carols, and the fact they’re performing all of Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite, rather than the usual excerpts. “The dance from The Snow Maiden is a really nice piece; it’s fun — but it’s also really hard to play.”
It’s about community, and the music too.
- Find more information and tickets to the December 14 concert [HERE].
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