When the Prince George Symphony Orchestra performs selections from Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn on Saturday night, there will be some special guests in attendance.
Rather than being in the audience, these guests will be in the orchestra.
"As part of the orchestra's Side-By-Side program, a complement of young players will augment the orchestra in the Beethoven symphony," said PGSO artistic director Kevin Zakresky. "In addition, the PGSO will be joined by players from the renowned Turning Point Ensemble, who fly into town for the first of two mini-residencies this season."
According to Zakresky, the Turning Point Ensemble is one of Canada's premiere groups performing new works of orchestral music. They are devoted to 20th century compositions and younger.
"Over the summer months we co-developed an initiative which will bring Turning Point personnel to Prince George to play with us, and also to work with young aspiring local composers," he said. PGSO musicians and singer Robin Norman will also help out.
"Dr. Rodney Sharman is the former composer-in-residence with the symphony orchestras in Vancouver and Victoria, he is an award-winning, internationally famous composer, and he will be teaching composition classes to young musicians in three trips between now and December. And the Turning Point Ensemble will be joining us again for our performance of Handel's Messiah on December 6 and 7."
With Sharman working on the writing of music, mentoring the local composers, it was thought that the Turning Point Ensemble would be a perfect partner so the aspiring music writers could actually hear their pieces played out loud, instead of just imagining how it would sound based on the notes on the page - a limitation most composers must constantly contend with.
Eight composers were chosen to work with Sharman and the Turning Point Ensemble. When word was circulated in PGSO circles that this opportunity was available "it took about two hours for those young composers to call in and apply," said Zakresky.
The oldest is 18 and the youngest is 12.
"The Turning Point Ensemble has really made this a crusade to boost the composers' field in British Columbia and they are making a lot of inroads with partnerships like this one with the PGSO," said Zakresky. "It's one thing to have great players, but for a truly healthy orchestral music industry, you have to have a foundation of new compositions and original music coming from within your own community. That's what propels everything."
So why is this unique partnership having its first meeting as part of a concert centred on the very antithesis of new music - the work of the three most emblematic masters?
"It all stems back to Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden, and Handel, too, with Messiah coming up later in the season. These are the composers who set the standards we work forward from," Zakresky explained. "If you check out our programme you will also see a lot of new works on our schedule, this season. I make it one of my most important points when we're programming. Writing orchestral music is such a rare skill. We have a lot of very good musicians and dancers and actors in Prince George, but if we can grow a number of composers you can really show your relevance as an arts community."
The PGSO performs the masterworks on Saturday night at Vanier Hall at 7:30 p.m. The mentorship happens the next day at the Native Friendship Centre's great hall.
