Utah State Symphony Orchestra prepares for upcoming concert
Step into a world of glittering jewels, chic, high-class ladies and gentlemen, intelligent conversation and soaring harmonies. This is an average day with the Utah State Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra is conducted by Professor Sergio Bernal, a native of Colombia. Bernal received a master’s degree in conducting from Yale University, and is finishing his doctorate in composition at the University of Utah.
“My favorite part of working with students at this musical level is the energy they create in playing the music. There is a lot of room from trying things out because college students like to think outside of the box and experiment,” Bernal said.
Bernal said most of the students involved in the orchestra are music performance majors.
Corie Schofield, a violinist in the orchestra and a junior majoring in violin performance said, “Most kids in the orchestra have been playing since before they even knew how to read.”
The students are expected to work very hard to reach their full potential as a group and as soloists. Schofield said the music majors in the orchestra end up playing their respective instruments for six to eight hours every day. Each student is expected to practice separately for at least four hours, the orchestra practices for an hour and a half, then each is involved in a private chamber quartet, which practices for about two hours each day.
Schofield said preparation for the difficult pieces chosen for the orchestra to play begins in June, when the students hoping for a spot in the class receive an email containing the challenging music they are supposed to have prepared before the school year even starts. Then they subsequently have auditions within the school year, about four times a year, to prove they are still worthy to lend their skills to the group.
Nicole Watts Tolson, a senior majoring in violin performance, said: “It definitely takes a lot of dedication, but it feels great when you’ve finally achieved the goal you want with the music you’re creating. The end product of all our hard work is so rewarding because you finally get to hear it all come together after many hours of drilling, and so much detail work, so many little pieces at a time.”
“I love classical music because it is the purest, most complex, beautiful and elegant solution to speaking. I’m glad that three times a week I get to speak without words along with my fellow orchestra members,” said Julia Marshall, a freshman majoring in cello performance.
Whitney Ecker is a senior majoring in music education, and is the flute soloist for the upcoming concert. She said she loves working alongside the string section as a floutist.
“Professor Bernal is so good at working with the students, and the ensemble is really prestigious. He writes a lot of music just for us to play,” she said.
In the past the orchestra has traveled to work with the orchestra at the University of Utah. They have also had guest artists come to work with them such as Andres Cardenas, the concertmaster of the Pittsburgh symphony, Utah symphony concertmaster Ralph Matson and the Fry Street Quartet. In November, they will be accompanying the Martha Graham Ballet Company in the Appalachian Springs, which was written by Aaron Copeland especially for this particular ballet company. The orchestra will also be accompanying the Utah State opera company in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” later in the year.
Their first concert of the year will be Friday, Oct. 29, in the St. Thomas Aquinas Church, and will be the first concert ever held in the church. Seven members of the USU faculty are involved in the concert. Cory Evans, director of the USU choirs, and the chamber choir are accompanying the orchestra in two of the pieces. There will be a number of vocal soloists from the choir, along with music department head Cindy Dewey and vocal professor Tyler Nelson.
“The audience will enjoy the energy and spontaneity. The music is to the level where all the students will think it’s cool,” Bernal said.
Tolson said a lot of people don’t understand classical music and have a hard time enjoying it. If they saw it in the same way they see how a person dedicates so much to a sports team or their major, they may understand why the music is still alive even after hundreds of years and why the students and faculty have devoted their lives to the expression of it.
“To see what students around your same age group have been working on the whole semester and see the dedication it takes, that’s exciting,” she said.
– kmarshall222@gmail.com