News
Introducing Our Season Sponsor
We are pleased to welcome Richard Hughes of RBC Dominion Securities as our new season sponsor. Mr. Hughes writes:
Music was an incredible inspiration for me, whether it was playing my violin, piano, guitar or saxophone, setting up recording equipment or writing MP3 software in the mid-1990s. I think music by nature is an inquisitive language, invoking curiosity in both the listener and the player. Through music I learned to be curious about the world around me. Instead of learning as a student, I wanted to truly understand. This "learned curiosity" has served me well in life and in my career.
I enthusiastically support the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra knowing that each of these students has the opportunity to develop a confidence that will contribute to a fulfilling life and a successful career. All the best for a great 2007/2008 season!
Richard E. Hughes, BBA, CIM, CFP
Investment Advisor & Financial Planner
RBC Dominion Securities
The Royal Bank Building
707 Fort St. - 1st Floor
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February 28, 2007: GVYO enters its third decade celebrating a matching endowment grant
Victoria, BC – The Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra has received a $60,000. grant from the Vancouver Foundation, through the BC Arts Renaissance Fund. The grant matches the amount reserved by the orchestra’s board to establish an operating endowment fund to secure the orchestra’s future.
The GVYO/Stuart Knussen Endowment is named for the orchestra’s founding music director, a distinguished British musician whose vision of high-standard orchestral training for young musicians has been sustained for twenty years, producing an ensemble respected across Canada.
Current Music Director János Sándor, himself an internationally acclaimed conductor, acknowledges the vital importance of the long-term endowment: “The beauty of a youth orchestra is that building the ensemble is an ongoing process. Every year we have literally a new orchestra…. It’s quite common to have 30-40% new players at the first rehearsal, and our work begins again to form a new and capable orchestra. We can be proud that our orchestra has such a strong identity and dedicated focus that our new members become confident in a surprisingly short time. They play wonderfully, and their sparkling eyes after a concert reflect pride and joy. We salute our orchestra’s bright future!”
The grant money is held by the Victoria Foundation as Trustee, and guarantees an annual income of 4% to the orchestra. Income generated from the endowment will help ensure the long-term financial viability of the orchestra, and enable new opportunities for growth. GVYO Board President John Sterk says, “ Our board is grateful for the foresight of the provincial government and the Vancouver and Victoria Community Foundations, in establishing partnership opportunities for the sustainability of our orchestra, as well as for other arts organizations, fostering a healthy cultural climate in our province.”
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Reviews
Please click below for Deryk Barker's review of the GVYO's concert, February 17, 2007:
GVYO plays Beethoven's Fifth
Please click below for Deryk Barker's review of the GVYO's 20th Anniversary Gala Concert, April 22, 2006.
Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra Turns Twenty
Please click below for Deryk Barker's review of Mahler's Symphony No. 1, performed by the joint forces of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony, under the baton of Tania Miller on February 26, 2006.
A Polite Mahler First - Deryk Barker, February 26, 2006
The following review appeared in the Times Colonist Feb. 14, 2005:
Youth orchestra performs Brahms with mastery
By Deryk Barker
"Brahms," wrote Sir Neville. Cardus, "is the composer for the middle-aged." While Cardus adduces
much cogent argument to support his thesis and, while having reached my own middle years I can
both understand and empathize with him, it cannot be gainsaid that on Saturday night Yariv Aloni
and his youthful players triumphantly demonstrated that Brahms can also be, par excellence, the
composer for the young.
I have remarked upon the paradox before, but it seems that each new incarnation of the Greater
Victoria Youth Orchestra is finer than its predecessor. The current orchestra is laying at a level
that most other youth orchestras, I suspect, can only dream of: For long stretches of the music it
was entirely possible to forget that one was not listening to professionals.
The opening of the symphony was illustrative of this point, with the pounding timpani and churning
lower strings providing a superb foundation, the whole ensemble being in almost perfect balance.
The brass's moment in the sun was in the finale: the wonderful solemnity of their chorale-like
theme in the pregnant introduction and the almost overwhelming richness and fullness of the sound
when it climactically reappeared supported by the fall orchestra.
When the musicians are playing this well, the critic can pay attention to the interpretation and
here Aloni pierced unerringly to the heart of the music. From one standpoint Brahms First is all
about tempos and, more importantly, tempo relationships. Aloni's were all right on the mark and he
joins the select and elite group who by refusing to take unmarked and egotistical liberties with
the tempos, especially in the finale, enable the music's cumulative power to be felt to its
fullest extent.
I can think of no higher praise of the performance than to observe that it took my mind off the
tooth that I had managed to break during the interval.
Marc Lavry's Emek was chosen by Leonard Bernstein for the Israel Philharmonic's first world tour
in 1960. One can readily see why: the music is determinedly melodic, rhythmically energetic,
attractively scored and quite the orchestral showpiece. Perhaps it brought certain Hollywood film
scores to mind — but as they were film scores composed a decade or two later, we should be careful
about any rush to judgment. Although the music tends to the episodic (as much program music tends
to) Aloni and his musicians still held the attention throughout by dint of their excellent playing
and enthusiasm. Dynamics and tempos were exemplary and the rowdy, syncopated passages most exciting.
The overture to Verdi's Nabucco opened the evening in style, from the noble solemnity of the
trombones at the opening to the finely controlled sub-Rossinian coda.
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The following review appeared in the Times Colonist April 19, 2004:
Youth orchestra ends season on a high note
By Deryk Barker
On Feb. 8, 1904 a "red-faced and perspiring" violinist named Viktor Novácek "fought
a losing battle" as the soloist in the premiere of a new violin concerto by Jean Sibelius.
Former concertmaster of the Helsinki Orchestra Willy Burmester was Sibelius' first choice but he was
unavailable, so the composer settled for Novácek, who, according to Sibelius' biographer Erik
Tawaststjerna, was considered a mediocrity.
Sibelius was shaken by the disaster of the premiere, but also stirred to revise the work. Most of the
revision, like that of the Fifth Symphony a decade and more later, was structural and the result -
again like the Fifth Symphony - converted a fine piece of music into a masterpiece.
Evan Buttemer proved a worthy soloist for Sunday's not-quite-centenary performance.
His initial entry was concentrated and lyrical and the mood rapt. For the most part he made light
of the concerto's formidable technical difficulties. While there were admittedly one or two spots in the
finale, where the rapid-fire double-stops were less than perfect (although the later double-stopped
harmonics were superb), it was a first rate and evidently well thought out performance.
János Sándor directed the GVYO in a superlative accompaniment. There was plenty of broodingly
Sibelian atmosphere (despite totally imappropriate weather) and a full, rich sonority from all
departments.
Edward Elgar's "Enigma" Variations proved to be his breakthrough (although, with hindsight,
it is the Serenade for Strings which is now considered the first fully "Elgarian" work) and
has remained probably his most popular music.
From the opening statement of the theme it was clear that Sunday's performance was to be no
mere run-through of the notes. Although, according to some, only English conductors truly understand
Elgar, Sándor nailed the lie firmly by directing an account of genuine stature.
Although no virtuoso showpiece, the variations include some very difficult music and there were
one or two occasions when I felt that perhaps Sándor was shading his tempos out of consideration
for his players (although Elgar himself arguably did the same in his recording of the Violin Concerto with
the 16-year-old Menuhin), yet this scarcely diminished a performance which was, in every other way,
first rate.
At the heart of the work is, of course, Nimrod, Elgar's portrayal of A.J. Jaeger; and it was the heart of
Sunday's performance. Taking the music at a distinctly non-self-indulgent tempo, Sándor summoned
forth from his players pure magic, from the hushed opening to the glowing climax. I was not surprised
to find tears running down my cheeks.
The volatile finale ("E.D.U." from Alice Elgar's own nickname for the composer) featured some
superb brass and ended the GVYO season on a suitable note of triumph.
This was one concert it was undoubtedly worth missing an afternoon's sunshine for.
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