{"id":428,"date":"2011-12-27T09:54:24","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T14:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2011-12-27T09:54:24","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T14:54:24","slug":"best-of-2011-a-visit-to-the-national-youth-orchestra-of-canada-boot-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2011\/12\/27\/best-of-2011-a-visit-to-the-national-youth-orchestra-of-canada-boot-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2011: A visit to the National Youth Orchestra of Canada boot camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How&#8217;s this for youthful enthusiasm?<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FVT-aRa8Awc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>That&#8217;s the 2011 contingent of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, entertaining Montrealers with a flash mob in front of Notre-Dame basilica.<\/p>\n<p>+++<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the week of yearly critical reminiscences.<\/p>\n<p>In my first installment, I want to recall my favourite visit of 2011, when the National Youth Orchestra invited me to their pre-concert-tour boot camp at University of Western Ontario.<\/p>\n<p>I had a literal blast &#8212; as much from the swirl of youthful energy, as from the devotion of the group&#8217;s leaders, mentors and small army of support staff that allow logistical challenges like this to come of smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>As an aide-m\u00e9moire, here is the story I wrote in the Star last summer:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/207.112.70.56\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/nyoc-onstage.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-432\" title=\"NYOC-onstage\" src=\"http:\/\/207.112.70.56\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/nyoc-onstage.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/12\/nyoc-onstage.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/12\/nyoc-onstage-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/12\/nyoc-onstage-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>LONDON, ONT.\u2014\u201cWhen I write my autobiography, I&#8217;m going to call it, \u2018I Woke Up Screaming,&#8217; \u201d says Barbara Smith.<\/p>\n<p>She then breaks into laughter as she ponders the joys and challenges of being in charge of the country&#8217;s flagship summer project for young musicians.<\/p>\n<p>Smith really should call her book \u201cI Discovered the Fountain of Youth.\u201d But it takes a few hours for me to realize that.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re sitting in the Faculty of Music&#8217;s Talbot Hall on the pastoral campus of the University of Western Ontario, surrounded by a mad jumble of sights and sounds as the National Youth Orchestra congregates for one of its twice-daily full-ensemble rehearsals. Coming close to the end of three weeks of intense work that Smith aptly calls a boot camp, the stage in front of us still buzzes with inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p>These young people, who range in age from 16 to about 25, are culled by rigorous audition from 500 applicants. All are first-class artists, even though many of them haven&#8217;t yet begun university. Many are kids, meaning they need far more oversight than grown-ups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a microcosm of what you&#8217;ll find out there,\u201d Smith says, detailing the personal crises endemic to hormonal teens, gathered from the four corners of Canada.<\/p>\n<p>There are physical challenges, too.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the younger orchestra members are not used to the hours of daily practice time \u2014 on their own, with a mentor, in small ensembles and as a full orchestra preparing two separate, substantial concert programs. Achy joints and sore muscles are common.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started with about 12 ice packs,\u201d Smith smiles. \u201cI think we have a couple left.\u201d Apparently, the resident nurse had to put up a sign-out sheet on the refrigerator to keep track of who needs cold therapy.<\/p>\n<p>So there have been lectures about saving precious limbs from injury. Tips on proper nutrition arrive alongside suggestions on how to smoothly bow long, sustained notes in a Mahler symphony.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s life skills and music skills all rolled into one, big, bouncy ball.<\/p>\n<p>Acting on their own initiative, members of the brass and percussion sections even organized a musical flash-mob surprise to greet this year&#8217;s conductor, Vancouver Opera music director Jonathan Darlington.<\/p>\n<p>There aren&#8217;t too many places where teens and young adults can enjoy a summer of good, clean fun while challenging their creative side and learning the joys of collaboration. Then they get to step in front of a paying audience who wants to hear the classics done well.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the need to stay on top of a gruelling schedule and the logistics of a 10-city tour, Smith wouldn&#8217;t trade this yearly marathon for anything.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of Canada&#8217;s top orchestral musicians, who could easily choose a few weeks&#8217; rest, travel or embark on their own summertime music projects. Instead, they have turned their July over to passing along hard-won wisdom and expertise to a new generation.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s almost a rite of passage for classical musicians in Canada: Four out of every 10 orchestral players in the country were once members of the National Youth Orchestra. Most eagerly pay the joy forward: So much so that after each full day of teaching, faculty members present a concert of their own.<\/p>\n<p>On this night, principal and assistant principal players from the Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo symphony orchestras have prepared a program of chamber music that includes R. Murray Schafer&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Theseus<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a piece that would tax the finest musicians after hours of practice time.<\/p>\n<p>After a hooting, hollering standing ovation from the kids, everyone retires to the same university dorm.<\/p>\n<p>As the young people (hopefully) drift off to sleep as midnight looms, the adults congregate in a student lounge, passing wine, crackers and cheeses as they share a stream of anecdotes and helpful shop talk distilled from decades of life in the trenches.<\/p>\n<p>As retired Vancouver Symphony principal horn Brian G&#8217;froerer recalls from his stints with the National Youth Orchestra in the early 1960s, and his musical adventures in the intervening decades, I realize that each of these seasoned veterans gets as much out of the young people as the students get out of their mentors.<\/p>\n<p>The clock doesn&#8217;t just magically stop for a few summertime weeks, but moves backward as experience bumps up against a thirst for knowledge and adventure. While the young players charge, the mentors recharge. This really is the fountain of youth.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How&#8217;s this for youthful enthusiasm? That&#8217;s the 2011 contingent of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, entertaining Montrealers with a flash mob in front of Notre-Dame basilica. +++ It&#8217;s the week of yearly critical reminiscences. In my first installment, I want to recall my favourite visit of 2011, when the National Youth Orchestra invited me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,36,60],"tags":[3628],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/12\/nyoc-onstage.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-6U","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}