The Prince George Symphony Orchestra has named a new principal cellist. The successful candidate to fill the vacancy is Naomi Kavka, a longtime member of the PGSO’s supporting cast.
In fact, Kavka is the embodiment of the PGSO’s effect on the community at large. During her initial learning of the instrument, she studied cello at the hand of then-PGSO cellist Jordan Dyck. As a youth she was given the chance to perform with the community’s professional orchestra as a support player. She took to the instrument so thoroughly she went all the way to Newfoundland and Labrador to university to study music and upon completion, with every orchestra in the world available to her, she chose to return to her hometown and apply her skills in the supporting cast once again.
It wasn’t long before the PGSO position became available, and by coincidence, the P.G. girl was available too.
“It’s a perfect fit,” said the orchestra’s conductor and artistic director Kevin Zakresky, who was also born and raised at the foot of the PGSO. “She has been our acting-principal cellist already, she has her degree from Memorial University, and for us she is an all-around asset, it’s not just about what she brings with her cello skills.
“The other day, she did our pre-concert talk, she rushed off to do a gig with her rock band, came back the next day to help us with our collaboration with the Tuning Point Ensemble to develop the next generation of talent, then she did her audition performance, and you probably know about her online arts magazine she does, so she is loaded in contacts into the cultural community of Prince George. She is plugged into the community; she is someone who is bigger than the sum of her parts; she is like this inextinguishable fire. That’s who you want in your professional core of your orchestra.”
“I went to school intending to do this - to come back home to the PGSO and maybe one day be the principal cellist,” Kavka admitted. “Everything just fell into place much sooner than I expected.”
She said she feels a lot of positive morale among the professional core working for the PGSO right now, augmented by dedicated community musicians who have mainstay jobs but also have the talent to earn an orchestra chair. The PGSO also brings in players from other towns as needed to strategically address the specialties of each concert event. Kavka said she was proud to be a member.
“I think it’s an exciting time to be a member of the pro core. There are a lot of good people involved in the PGSO, and I love the directions they are going in,” she said. “I have a lot of experience in different types of music, and I think my interest in new music is helpful. Kevin puts a lot of emphasis on showcasing new composers.”
She said it was important to maintain a relationship with the foundational classics in order to succeed as a professional symphony orchestra, but equally important to move the music forward.
“Everyone likes to see a Rembrandt, but you don’t want to fixate on just the masters we have seen over and over again,” she said. “You don’t want to be an orchestra in modern times, with modern people in your audience and on your stage, but behave like a museum.”
She is aware, also, of societal gender politics being on a progression as well.
“Growing up, I didn’t really encounter a lot of female instructors. Now I’m seeing a lot more female pedagogues in university, women on stage, as well as female mentors. We have a lot of female representation on the PGSO and in university music programs there seems to be more women than men in the instructor roles, so that is exciting.”
She also said the orchestra was “full of people who are community-minded, not just in it for the job” so a motivational energy was present in the PGSO group.
Perhaps even an inextinguishable fire.
