Dear Alma, I’m so sad I’m made to play bad music
Daily Comfort ZoneFrom our agony aunt’s mailbag:
Dear Alma,
I’m 14, and in my first year in high school and in Youth Orchestra. I am a good violinist, I can play the Bruch Violin Concerto and Bach E Major Partita. I was really excited to be old enough for Youth Orchestra because the middle school orchestra plays arrangements of pieces, not real pieces. My first Youth Orchestra concert had all regular pieces but one arrangement. Then the second concert was half and half, and now our new pieces are all arrangements. I feel deflated and sad and like the conductor doesn’t believe in us. They used to play the good pieces before – Dvorak and Beethoven and Sibelius. Now it’s none of that. My friends in orchestra are also really good players – they can play Shostakovich 8th String Quartet. All we want to do is play the real stuff. Even if we aren’t super, that’s what we want to do.
Sad with Bad Music
Dear Sad with Bad Music,
That must be very frustrating. You and your friends are serious musicians, and you joined this orchestra for a challenge and to learn great repertoire that you are capable of playing. Let’s find a way for you to make a change.
A Youth Orchestra is a training ground for young, advanced musicians to learn the ropes by performing in exciting, large spaces, meeting like-minded people, and challenging themselves with serious repertoire. There must be a reason that the conductor has been shying away from the big repertoire. It may be that they have some strong, and some weak sections of the orchestra (very common in Youth Orchestra settings) and is catering the repertoire towards the lowest level. They also may be feeling the pressure of high-quality performances and choosing easier repertoire to ensure a good concert. Regardless of their reasons, take the opportunity to speak up and let your opinions known. This is also a skill we develop and learn as young musicians – how to collaborate with colleagues and express our ideas in a compelling way. Consider it a part of your Youth Orchestra Education.
Sad with Bad Music, talk to your friends, and ask the Executive Director for a meeting. Assuming you don’t have a student council, create one, and make your first agenda repertoire selection. There are many options for an orchestra – you can have a more advanced piece played by the advanced string players (such as Elgar Serenade for String) as well as a wind and brass ensemble, even a percussion ensemble, which can be coached during breakout sections in rehearsal. They can also hire extras to fill the weak spots for concerts. The main, big piece can still be something less difficult that everyone can manage, but there is room for flexibility in an orchestra of any age.
Organize your thoughts, why this means so much to you, and be clear and direct. Then your student council can meet with the Executive Director and conductor and work together to make your Youth Symphony the challenging, educational platform that you want to dedicate your hard work towards.
The administration and your colleagues will welcome your commitment and passion. I know they will.
Write back to us and let us know how it goes. You can do it!
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
If s/he and friends are as good as they are claiming they should be able to find a higher standard of ensemble to stretch them and use the youth orchestra more as a place to help others who are not yet at their stage
Hire a 14 year old while they still know everything!!
I’m sure they aren’t quite as mobile as an adult in a similar situation.
I agree with the recommendation: speak to the executive director. I would do it alone and not include the anecdotal info about other “friends feeling the same way.” Just be honest and encourage the director to consider surveying the group for at least recommendations on a single concert of special music.
Surely, it is much easier to “vote with your feet” and find (or even found) another orchestra as an amateur than as a professional musician. In most territories, the density of amateur orchestras is much higher than professional orchestras, so mobility is far less of an issue. And if the child is as good as he/she claims, there is no need to restrict himself/herself to youth orchestras either. Unless the child is on a music scholarship with strings attached (excuse the pun), there is no need for him/her to participate in school music-making if he/she can find better opportunities elsewhere.
To the boys and girls having to play watered down music . Where are you .
Spent 40 years violin with RLPO and some conducting . I’d wake that youth orchestra up . Would be an honour
Don’t need ££ . Get me soon . . I don’t use a baton ! 07788583502 .
Motorcycling conductor .Doesn’t take long to get to rehearsals.
Don’t talented, inadequately-challenged kids form garage bands anymore? To play the music they really want to play?
He and his over-achieving friends could form a chamber orchestra and play serious lit at the level they think suits them.
Dear Alma,
I have a playing test on February 5th. I’m supposed to have all of a Mozart concerto ready, two movements of a show piece, and all of a sonata prepared by then. I don’t think the whole sonata will happen, so I am hoping to replace the last movement with a different solo piece. I still have to learn the second movement of the show piece and the last movement of Mozart and all of my cadenzas! How can I do this when my teacher is a perfectionist and won’t let me move on unless it’s completely perfect? We often spend a whole lesson on 10-20 measures of music! I am at the point where I really want to do well and I am burnt out and stressed all at the same time.
Sincerely,
I Hope I Don’t Flunk My Test
You could hand Perlman happy birthday and he would elevate the works artistic merit far beyond it’s capabilities. Seems to me that is your task with any music you play.