The Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra hosted elementary school students from far and wide at the D.F Cook Recital Hall this Tuesday in an event which gave them the opportunity to perform under the tutelage of a professional conductor.
Schoolbusses began to arrive at around 10:00 A.M, with the music building here on campus quickly becoming occupied by nearly 250 young music students.
As they took their seats at the recital hall (segregated into groups based on which instrument they would later play), NSO executives made opening statements before a string quartet played some beautiful classical music for the children. Following this, Music Director Marc David took the stage.
The students had been practicing sections of the classical song O, Fortuna (the theme of Carmina Burana), thanks to sheet music supplied for free to local music teachers via a dropbox link that the NSO provided them with. After each individual school had practiced pieces with their music teachers in preparation for the event, Marc David was now responsible for conducting all of these students from across the city in a performance of the song.
After a few practice runs and tips from the Music Director, the recital hall was filled with the sound of O, Fortuna as students sang, struck drums, and performed on various wind and string instruments in harmony and unision.
We had a chance to discuss the event with the CEO of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Hugh Donnan.
Picture Credits: Wooster Chen
MUSE: “What sort of impact are you hoping that this event has on the kids that came here today?”
DONNAN: “It’s a great impact because if you think about music and music education, while it starts in school, some people cotinue that as a hobby for their entire lives. Some people wil go on and study music. So it’s really great to, while they’re in school, get a chance to try an instrument like a recorder or a clarinet or a violin, so this event really is an opportunity for these students to come together with other students from across the city and with the NSO to see what it sounds like to be apart of a largegroup of musicians who perform (like the NSO performs all the time)”.
MUSE: “How long did it take to prepare for an event like this?”
DONNAN: “What we do every spring is when we are planning our new season, we look at our masterworks concert series and we find a piece of music which we can use with the students and which we can arrange for them. So last year for example we did the ode to joy, this year we’re performing Carmina Burana march 22nd, so we picked out the main theme from that piece of music (O, Fortuna). So then what happens is that over the summer months our student arranger, Timothy Brandon, who does all the arrangements for us, he put together a variety of arrangements for schools so it could be for bands, flute orchestra, string orchestra, a voice arrangement or a quarter arrangement… we had a whole batch of arrangements ready. We put those online on a google drive and then schools across the province are able to access those for free, and either print them off or use them for class and learn that music.”
The event was a success and details on further NSO projects can be found at www.nsomusic.ca.