Seven USU orchestra students perform in festival in Italy
In the shadows of Pergine Castle in a northern Italian town near Trento, musicians and performers gathered from all over the world to participate in the Pergine Spettaculo Aperto, or the Pergine Open Festival. This year, seven students from the Utah State University Orchestra were chosen to participate in this annual tradition.
They included Aubrey Rasmussen, a junior viola performance and music education major; Dave Sweeney, a senior trombone performance major; Ashley Wilkinson, a violin player and a junior majoring in biology; Alissa Kirk, a junior percussion performance major; Tyler Whittaker, a junior majoring in music education and recent music graduates Dave McCollum and Brittany Ross.
Participants came from 14 different countries, including musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra of Columbia and many European musical conservatories, colleges and orchestras.
The students left for Italy in mid-June and lived in Europe for six weeks before returning in early August. During their time in Italy, they rehearsed for at least six hours most days for three completely different concert sets consisting of music from Latin America, South America and the United States, Sweeney said.
Influential conductors and musicians also held special training classes for specific instruments, Rasmussen said, and several famous South American and European artists also came to perform with the orchestra. In total, she said they performed in between eight and 16 concerts (depending on the instrument), some of which lasted as long as three and a half hours and ended at 1:30 a.m. Despite the length and late hour of their performances, the audiences consistently gave standing ovations and requested encores, Rasmussen said.
To conclude their experience, they traveled to Spain to live for a week and perform at the famous Roman Ruins. Rasmussen said the Spanish concert was her favorite because it “felt like we were playing with friends and not just with some other musicians.” Wilkinson added, “We really started to sound like an orchestra” during the final concerts in Spain.
Professor Sergio Bernal of the USU music department said attending the festival allows students to play alongside musicians from other cultures who perform at an extremely high level, which gives students new perspective on how to play and practice. Several of the students mentioned that participating in the festival helped their confidence and skills as musician grow. Sweeney said that it was “humbling” to perform with such talented and committed musicians and said it, “helped me realize just how dedicated you need to be to make it [as a musician].”
Ultimately, the cultural experience of being immersed in another continent with people from all over the world was emphasized as the biggest reward of the festival. Sweeney said it was satisfying to “see things from a different perspective” and talk to people about their opinions of the United States.
Other students echoed this feeling.
“There were so many people from different cultures and we all got along,” Rasmussen said. “We played the same music and were similar in so many ways that made us all human. If you go in without stereotyping, there is so much you can get to know about a person.”
This is the second year that the USU music department has sent students to the Pergine Open Festival. Festival organizer Maestro Julián Lombana, a friend and mentor of Bernal, has offered several scholarships for USU students to participate in the festival due to his knowledge of Bernal and the quality of the USU orchestra students.
Bernal says he anticipates continued involvement with the Pergine Open Festival in the future, both with students traveling to participate in the festival as well as the possibility of performers and concerts coming to USU. Bernal said that the festival has helped to increase USU’s presence on the international music scene. The next chance to hear the USU orchestra will be Oct. 13 in a concert at the Kent Concert Hall, which will feature the music of Beethoven.
-tliljegren@cc.usu.edu