More than ten Parkes members of the Mitchell Conservatorium’s Lachlan Regional Orchestra embarked on a musical adventure with the Sydney Youth Orchestra (SYO) in Dubbo recenlty. It was an adventure designed to encourage, challenge and grow the local musicians.
Members attended workshops with the Peter Seymour Orchestra and the Sydney Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble, which are two branches of the SYO over two days. They worked on performance pieces with the SYO members. The end result was a combined concert with the SYO to treat the audience with a performance that was excit- ing and filled with enjoyment – both for the audience and the orchestras.
This event was not just valuable for the chance it provided for participants to perform with SYO kids, but more importantly, it was a wonderful opportunity to grow in the skills necessary for playing together with other musicians.
Playing in groups such as the Lachlan Regional Orchestra, the Parkes Shire Band and the Forbes Shire Band gives young musicians the chance to develop maturity in areas such as:
-Listening to the other members of the group and learning to play in time with them.
-Companionship and the encouragement of collaborating with those playing at a similar level as themselves.
-Combining tone, pitch, dynamics and pre- cision through working together and responding to cues and direction from the conductor to make many sounds become one unified and wonderfully textured sound.
-It was a fantastic weekend and all who went, came away with much more knowledge and skill. Thank you to the Sydney Youth Or- chestra for making this event possible
-For more information on the Mitchell Conservatorium’s Lachlan Regional Orchestra, contact James Whalan at james.whalan@ mitchellconservatorium.edu.au
By Pam Parkin