Orkidstra's 12th End-Of-Year concert

They are getting better and better; this is a phenomenal success story, chapters of which I have mentioned from time to time in this blog.

Everyone together for the final item in the concert.

I believe I went to the first End-Of-Year concert put on by Ottawa's Orkidstra in 2007. I remember feeling very moved on that occasion by the effort the children and had made to put on a concert at all. They were for the most part very young. The stage management in those early days was not good; it took ages to get the children all lined up in the right places for each part of their performance. This year's concert was very different, despite the far greater number of people involved, the movements on and off stage well rehearsed and slickly executed, with unobtrusive but competent help from the adults in charge. From a small group of about 40 youngsters learning to play donated instruments with the help of volunteers, this El Sistema inspired initiative has mushroomed into a city-wide movement now serving about 500 children from low-income families. The organisers are about to open a third "hub" for the work they do.

I wish I could describe the punch the young musicians put into their performances. It is electrifying.

Senior orchestra playing 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

Chris has just interrupted me to tell me that "Ottawa has a new slogan: Canada In One City." A teenage orchestra member yesterday took the microphone at one point and told us that the whole city helps to support this "Family" of theirs, so that slogan is apt.

Angela Hewitt, OC, OBE, Ambassador for the OrKidstra

Here's some good news. The world famous musician Angela Hewitt has joined the growing number of supporter's of Ottawa's Leading Note Foundation, the people who run the OrKidstra project and their beneficiaries. In this scheme

children from low income families receive free group and individual music lessons and learn [...] respect, compassion, teamwork and responsibility through playing and singing together.

I went to hear the children play and sing at Ottawa University this afternoon in celebration of Angela Hewitt's appointment as their "Ambassador," and what a top-notch occasion it was. Laurence Wall of CBC radio was the very professional Master of Ceremonies, who had offered his services for free. There was a lovely surprise at the end of the concert for those of us who weren't expecting this, when Ms. Hewitt picked up a violin and Mr. Wall picked up a cello and joined in behind the children for their abbreviated, but spirited rendering of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

Not all 350 children from the program were taking part today but there was a good, representative sample and Mr. Wall interviewed some of them during the concert, including an enthusiastic little chap of six years old who had to stand on a chair to be seen and heard. He said he liked being in this music school 100%. Their Artistic Director Tina Fedeski said a few words too, pointing out that between them the children know 42 languages as well as a 43rd language: music.

It's not all earnest, ultra classical music that they play, by any means. The concert began by a row of juniors sitting cross-legged at the front of the hall, playing so-doh, so-doh on their xylophones, which eventually morphed into John Williams' theme from Star Wars ... and then all the children joined in, the singers singing "Wel-come --to the orKIDstra!" to the tune, the instrumentalists playing its accompaniment full blast. This was followed by music from a local composer (present today, playing the piano part, in fact)––Dr. James Wright of Carleton University. He had composed the setting for young voices and accompanying strings of Jack Layton's touching, deathbed Letter To Young Canadians which I have mentioned before in this blog. It is somewhat lightweight music but, like the letter, it's sincere, and the lady sitting behind me was saying that she cries every time she hears it. OrKidstra students gave the "world première" a couple of years ago. The thought I always have when hearing this song is that children who repeat over and over during their rehearsals

... love is better than anger, hope is better than fear...

will not grow up to be bad people. Words tend to go in, if they're sung, and these are good words.

Other items on the programme featured Angela Hewitt herself, who played three of the Spanish Dances by Grenados for us on the piano, and Bach's 3rd Brandenburg Concerto, performed by the senior string plays, whom she conducted. She's a versatile lady; she speaks excellent French too––Parisian French! The most thrilling moment was when she accompanied young Peter Perez (now aged 14––he has been in the OrKidstra since the age of 8) on his clarinet. An extremely musical and dedicated young man, he played the first movement of Saint-Saens' Clarinet Sonata, of which I know every note because Chris and I used to have a go at it. I could therefore appreciate better than some how very well it was accomplished, but the whole audience gave them a spontaneous standing ovation.

When Ms. Hewitt officially received her Ambassadorship at the concert she took the microphone and said exactly what I think and feel:

"We have to get it out of our head that music is just for the élite ..." and she finished her speech with: "Here's to Music, and to sharing it with as many people as possible!"

She'll make an excellent Ambassador.

Beethoven twice

This week I was one of the 400 people at the first Kulturgarten event of the week, at the German Ambassador's residence: a piano recital by Hinrich Alpers that took place in a big tent in the Ambassador's garden. (There are 74 photos of this event on the Embassy's Facebook page.) We "mingled" on the lawn outside first, as one does, then carried our glasses of wine into the rows of seats in the tent. After the Ambassador had spoken about this year's anniversaries––100 years since the start of the 1st World War ... 25 since the fall of the Berlin Wall––the pianist introduced his music, telling us about Schumann's Waldszenen (scenes in the forest) that he was going to play first. One of its movements, Verrufene Stelle, he described as "strange". It was supposed to evoke a flower that had turned red in a haunted part of the forest, having imbibed human blood!

Mr. Alpers played everything from memory. An even stranger item followed, a piece by John Cage for a "prepared piano" stuffed with bits of felt ribbon and a metal bolt between two of its strings––"absolutely safe," he explained, tongue in cheek, adding that playing the piece actually takes less time than the preparation. John Cage was "one of the most versatile composers of the 20th century," he said, who attached microphones to cacti, or electrodes to mushrooms, so as to "record their inner life while they were growing". The piece we heard was Cage's Music for Marcel Duchamp

Composed in 1947 for a segment of Hans Richter's surrealist film "Dreams That Money Can Buy." [...] The segment—a dream one of the characters is having—is titled "Discs" and consists mostly of Duchamp's rotoreliefs. These are designs painted on flat cardboard circles, which are to be spun on a phonographic turntable.   (Wikipedia)

What is it like? I'd describe the sound as pizzicato, with an echo effect, the instrument "almost not recognisable any more," as Mr. Alpers put it.

The piano was quickly restored to normal and the following piece, also by Cage, was his only tonal composition: In a Landscape (1948) approximately in D-minor, a wistful, impressionist piece, meant to accompany a dance. The sustaining pedal is kept full on, throughout.

Beethoven was the last composer on the programme; we heard a wonderfully mature sonata he had composed in his 20s, Op. 10 No. 3 in D major, with what Mr. Alpers called a "deep" slow movement. I think he conveyed its profundity to almost everybody there and the birdsong in the background enhanced rather than detracted from it. We all felt the greatness of young Beethoven at that moment, as had his contemporaries in Vienna, apparently, at a time when Haydn was befriending and encouraging him. Other pianists of his day were given a run for their money, said Mr. Alpers. Beethoven dominated.

I should like to learn to play this piece!

Three days later I was at another, very different concert where Beethoven was played. This was the end of year performance of Ottawa's Orkidstra and one of the items on their programme was the famous first movement of the 5th Symphony. (Last year, they played the last movement, and they have improved since.) "Who would have thought when we started this," said the Executive Director, Tina Fedeski, "that seven years later the children would have been able to play Beethoven?" She is rightly proud. Most members of the Orkidstra have been taught from scratch, their instruments and tuition provided free of charge. Other triumphs for these admirable young people and their teachers and mentors were Mussorgsky's Great Gate of Kiev, a movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony, a Brandenburg Concerto by J.S.Bach, Alma Llanera by Gutiérrez and an exciting medley from Star Wars.

Something to aspire to

When I arrived at the Bronson Centre last Thursday evening, the OrKidstra children were already in their seats in the assembly hall, waiting for the concert to start. All that week the Afiara Quartet and the Despax Quartet of adult musicians had been coaching the more advanced members of the OrKidstra, and they were about to perform together. The less advanced and the parents had been encouraged to come along in support and, row by row, were being served biscuits and milk in little paper cups to prevent them from going hungry during the performance. Three well behaved African children sat beside me, speaking beautiful French. The older girl told me that the lady leading the Despax Quartet was her violin teacher. On my other side were three grey haired ladies, probably donors to the Leading Note Foundation.

This concert was an initiative of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society; this particular event was part of their "Music For All" outreach program that also takes place in schools, long term care centres, and such.

The arts are not for the privileged few but for the many. Their place is not on the periphery of daily life, but at its center. (John D. Rockefeller)

Before the music began, Tina Fededsky came forward to tell the audience how music empowers children and builds a sense of community and how the OrKidstra venture in Ottawa had "grown beyond our wildest dreams."

Their discipline is very strict, as can be deduced from the way the listening children sat still. The first item was the first movement of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, played with tremendous energy and concentration by students and professionals together, ten violinists, six violists, 6 'cellists and a double bass player. Because they were all wearing OrKidstra T-shirts, you could not at first tell them apart. It must be wonderful for the music students to share in the creation of such a confident sound as this.

The second item was a movement of Beethoven's "Harp" Quartet, played by the Despax Quartet. It thrilled me to bits, and one of the old ladies sitting beside me appeared to be in tears. Music making of the highest calibre, showing the chamber musicians of the OrKidstra at the "Dedication" level what to aim for; six of this group came on stage next, to play the lovely Larghetto movement from Mozart's Clarinet Quintet (the lowest part was doubled). Peter, on the clarinet, is only 13 or 14, but already looks and sounds like a first rate musician––a very gifted young man who is now principal clarinet of the Ottawa Junior Youth Orchestra. (He was also the young conductor at the last OrKidstra concert that I reported in this blog.)

These performances were applauded mightily, but when the Afiara Quartet came on to make their contribution to the concert, such was the enthusiasm that some of the young people cheered! It was a movement from a quartet by Nielsen that looked challenging to play and made demands on the audience too, but, as Tina said afterwards, even the youngest children concentrated on what they were hearing, "absolutely entranced."

The concert came to a conclusion with an exciting performance by the two professional quartets joining forces to play the last movement of Mendelssohn's Octet for strings, the Afiara 'cellist flinging himself into the music, stamping his feet and all of them practically levitating from their chairs.

Standing ovation!

The OrKidstra's great success

I don't just mean this week at their end of year concert, I mean altogether! Since 2007 when the initiative began with 30 children, they are now making musicians out of 300 of them. Those 300 come from 42 different cultural backgrounds, a colourful crowd in every sense as they stand there in their bright T-shirts, radiating enthusiasm.

awesome, fantastic, wonderful, cool, special, great, soooo fun...

teamwork, harmony, smiles, perseverance, family, love, life...

These were some of the words used by the children themselves to describe how they felt about being part of it––pictures of the Kids holding up their words were projected on a screen the audience could see, as we waited for the performance to begin. The excitement was palpable. A large proportion of the audience was of course parents, siblings (some of the tiny ones very keen to join in themselves) and grandparents. The rest, well wishers like me.

In the foyer a string quartet of Orkidstra players was welcoming us with arrangements of Christmas carols. Inside the auditorium at the Bronson Centre, the other performers were still rehearsing. I went in. Tchaikovsky's Trepak, the Russian dance from the Nutcracker, was being conducted incredibly well by a young boy in a yellow t-shirt, 13 years old. Wow! Then the little ones (Kiddly Winks) finished practising their song and recorder piece, Fais dodo (my son learned that one at the French school in Berne when he was 4). It's easy because it only has 3 notes in the tune. In the actual performance their conductor and her assistants sat on the floor to direct them, so that they wouldn't hide our view of the children. Some are as young as 5.

As the concert finally got under way, the wind players processed in, down both sides of the auditorium, to take their seats in the orchestra, playing Deck the Halls from memory. This was an impressive feat but the audience was too distracted to pay them enough attention, parents still leaping up out of their seats to take pictures of their children up front. Things calmed down as we all stood up for O Canada. Then came the Tchaikovsky piece I mentioned, followed by an arrangement for strings of Jupiter from Holst's Planets Suite, performed by the Senior and Intermediate Strings who got two thumbs up from their conductor Margaret Tobolowska. She, along with Tina Fedeski, co-founded the Orkidstra projects.

The children––singers and instrumentalists––are mentored by a team of professional musicians along with young and old volunteers. I really like the fact that high school students and university students are involved in this way. The youngest violinists, Kid Players who aren't yet advanced enough to play in the Orkidstra, gave us a three-part piece in the mixolydian mode called Old Joe Clarke. After the beginner violinists came a small group of children playing a Song of the Wind on violas and the 'cello, assisted by two of their mentors. I wondered if one of the violas was the one I used to play, that I donated to the foundation. Someone was playing it somewhere in this concert.

As well as Fais dodo, the Kiddly Winks managed a syncopated song for spoken voices (whispering, chanting, shouting!) in 3 parts. It takes a considerable amount of effort and discipline to get little children to do this sort of thing; I was impressed.

10 Leading Notes was another inspirational shouting song involving everyone, with a tap-tap-clap-fingerclick accompaniment from the audience. Then the Kid Singers (middle school age) sang a two part song with a solo cello obligato. Heartwarming story: the 'cello was played by a young man who had come to Canada as a 7 year old refugee, had heard and seen the 'cello at an OrKidstra event and had demanded to learn it. He's now the leading 'cellist in the OrKidstra. The Singers also sang an African song to a drumbeat, Zulu Mama, with the children doing dance actions as they sang, especially the little boy in the Afro haircut.

A 14 year old girl (the one whose word for the OrKidstra was "life") introduced the next two items, one of which was an arrangement of the theme music by Klaus Badelt to Pirates of the Caribbean, challenging music––I wrote on my programme: "Well done!" It was rhythmic and dynamic. Having accomplished musicians in the orchestra to help the children make a good noise makes a difference, eggs them on and masks their hesitations and mistakes.

"Energy and joy happen here," said the Executive Director Tina Fedeski. The whole team, all 200 of them or so, then performed a sloppy number called We are the World which I didn't think much of; they followed it with Beethoven's Ode to Joy from the 9th symphony. "Everyone -- please join us!" so I sang along to the words on the screen, definitely not Schiller, but still. Last of all "Everyone" sang Jingle Bells as well, the orchestra being conducted by one of its chief sponsors, but this lady had been outshone as a conductor by the little boy we'd seen earlier.

In the foyer as we came out little boys were already tucking into the chocolate cakes on the table with as much enthusiasm as they'd had for the music, and older people were dropping cheques into the donations box. I hope they raised loads of money. The Kiddly Winks were getting tired. "It was long," said a little girl. "It's past my sleeping time!"

Here's a recording of the OrKidstra and singers made in 2012. Read the "show more" notes to see what they were doing (I was there on that occasion too):

"I believe in the power to change things. I believe in power of youth!"

Respighi and Schumann for the OrKidstra

I mentioned this subject once or twice before in my blog this year.

Chris and I were at a private concert last night where money was raised to fund the OrKidstra for children of low-income families in Ottawa, in the presence of one of its initiators, Margaret Munro Tobolowska. She spoke to us in passionate tones about how she believed classical music should be accessible to every child, not just the gifted and privileged ones—preaching to the converted as far as I'm concerned—but wasn't the soloist at John's house; that was another 'cellist, Paul Merlyn, who like her had once progressed through the old and trusty "system" that's taken such a knock from recent governments blinkered by short-term financial exigencies who slash the funding for such things and make some of us very angry indeed. Mr Merlyn, having played in a local youth orchestra, got into the (British) National Youth Orchestra, then the European Youth Orchestra and now teaches 'cello here, in Ottawa.

He was accompanied by Fred Lacroix at the piano, playing the Adagio con Variazione by Respighi and Schumann's Cello Concerto with the orchestra part arranged for piano. Paul Merlyn talked about the Schumann concerto, written towards the end of his creative life when he was fighting the onset of madness. Does the music give an inkling of Schumann's loss of mental control or was it an effective antidote that kept it at bay for a while? Mr Merlyn was inclined to think the latter. He played the whole thing from memory, very well indeed.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the concert and keen to support the children, we bought a DVD of the film that inspires these people, Tocar y Luchar, which I'm intending to watch all the way through this evening. Watch this space for a rave review by tomorrow evening because, from what I've heard about it so far, I expect to be impressed!

Incidentally in John's kitchen after the concert I got talking to a lady whose winter occupation is house-sitting in Dawson City in the Yukon. She usually stays there till June and told me that although the city is small, it's a real centre of culture. Now there's some interesting food for thought ...