Training young musicians a serious business

By JOE HARROP

LONDON - Youth orchestras. Almost every classical musician alive today has been in one. They're a great way to meet other young people, parents love the safe social environment they provide for adolescents, and we can all recount personal tales of "this one time, at band camp ... "

But are we being serious enough about our youth music in New Zealand? Would we rather see it as simply a healthy way to overcome the insecurities of growing up? Playing a musical instrument in an ensemble promotes creativity and artistic teamwork, and lengthens the concentration span. But is that all there is to it?

The cultural experience of recreating some of western civilisation's great artwork with a bunch of peers is an obvious upside, but to what degree is that experience taken? Are we really driving the youth of this country's classical music to reach its potential? Or are we happy simply that they're playing at all?

In the United Kingdom and Europe things are a little different. Youth ensembles are important training grounds for professional work. Places in the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) are hotly contested, as one would expect. When you hear them practising for auditions, it's obvious there is more at stake than socialising with kids your own age and a four-week tour of Europe. It's serious business.

Some of my colleagues at home found out just how seriously the UK and Europe take their youth music scene when Lutz Kohler, the training conductor for the EUYO, directed last year's New Zealand Youth Orchestra. I played for Kohler in an unforgettable performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony. Previously, his severe rehearsal technique had reduced a young harpist to tears. When I heard he was heading down under, I knew the NZYO was in for a memorable time. By all accounts it was indeed "memorable". Of the old school, Kohler is awe-inspiring in performance, but a harsh taskmaster in rehearsal. I once asked him why he had treated the harpist the way he did. He looked at me, saw I wasn't trying to be smart, and replied that it was nothing personal, he simply wanted to do what was right for the music.

Compare that with the previous year's conductor of the NZYO, Benjamin Zander, and you have two fabulous musicians poles apart in their approach to youth music. Zander is incredibly charismatic, almost too much so. He believes in empowering the person in the music (vice versa in Kohler's case). The "Americenthusiasm" of Zander is a little easier to take than Kohler's Teutonic intensity. Yet to be fair, both have equally valid claims in their treatment of young orchestras, and both have an equal amount of support from the young musicians they conduct. However, I'm told it is Zander who'll be directing the NZYO this year.

But we don't need to look to a smooth-talking Brit-American or a rough-riding German to see how youth classical music can function well and keep its artistic levels high. We have several examples of our own. Nowadays Ashley Heenan is not a name many young New Zealand musos know, but their predecessors certainly do. Heenan directed the Schola Musica, the NZSO's former orchestral training scheme. This ensemble, usually numbering around 20, ran for 24 years before it was disestablished in 1985. It was, and remains, the greatest single source of players for the orchestra.

New Zealand's regional youth orchestras continue to thrive, most often because of the untiring support of parents and committees, and zealous musical directorship. Even young, community-based ensembles, such as Auckland's Aotea Youth Orchestra, are reaching exemplary levels - not just in their playing, but in bringing their music to ever-wider audiences.

Let's not forget those members of youth orchestras who don't go on into the music profession. They become informed and knowledgeable audience members. Some, such as Adrien de Croy (a long-time violinist with the Auckland Youth Orchestra) become patrons of youth music.

The commercial emphasis on youth in the international classical music scene is undeniably strong. What was previously thought of as the beginning of a young concert artist's career is now seen as his or her most lucrative period of exposure. In this environment, the inherent mixture of social music-making and serious classical music ensemble - so vividly apparent in a youth orchestra performance - becomes even more precious. It will remain precious, but it's up to us to prevent it from becoming rare.