VYOA News & Updates

The Elley-Long Music Center will be closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday from 1pm on Wednesday, November 23 until Monday, November 28 at 9:00 am. Our best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy holiday to all.

The VYOA Staff

Every time I step on the podium with the VYO, I’m reminded of all the wonderful musicians who taught and mentored me during my student and early professional years. It’s a wonderful feeling share that legacy to these dedicated young musicians.

Jeffrey Domoto
VYOA Music Director

Congratulations to this season’s VYO soloists!

Perry Emerson, flute

Perry Emerson is a twelfth grade student at St. Johnsbury Academy. Perry has played music since he was a member of his fourth grade elementary school band. His favorite VYO highlight? This summer’s tour of Germany and the Czech Republic. “World expanding” is how he described the concert tour, adding that he visited beautiful new places and thoroughly enjoyed bonding with his fellow VYOA musicians. Perry’s future will include further music study at a conservatory or music school. Currently he resides in Lyndonville. Perry studies the flute with Montpelier instructor Karen Kevra.

Justin Truell, violin

Justin Truell is a senior at the Mid Vermont Christian School. He has played the violin since the age of five. His VYOA experience has allowed him greater understanding for the music he’s played and an appreciation for the work and skill it takes to be a member of such a large ensemble.  A memorable experience for him was last season’s fall concert which he felt was one of the VYO’s best live performances. Justin’s future includes music school and a career as an educator. Currently he lives in Woodstock. Justin studies the violin with Burlington’s Evelyn Read.

Cara Turnbull, contrabass

It is amusing to note that when Cara first came to the VYOA, she did not enjoy playing for people!  She says, “As I continued to participate in orchestra, however, I’ve become more confident with myself and my playing,“ adding, “Now, I play with more strength and conviction, which has made me a better overall musician.” Cara will demonstrate her talent at Orchestrapalooza on December 4 at the Flynn Center. The Essex High School senior hopes to continue her music studies at college next fall, potentially studying bass performance or musicology. Cara studies privately with bass instructor Bill Tilley.

Victoria Bergeron, violin

Victoria Bergeron is a senior at Essex High School. She has played the violin – and participated in the VYOA – for 12 years. As the concertmaster for the VYO, she says, “Being concertmistress has taught me how to be an effective leader… this orchestra is really a family, and this allowed me to experience classical music in a remarkable way.” One of her favorite VYO moments was being asked to lead the string sections during last year’s First Night concert on New Year’s Eve. Admittedly, the experience was terrifying for her, but rewarding in hindsight. New Year’s Eve appears to be a lucky night for Victoria; she will perform as a soloist during the 2011 VYO First Night concert at the Flynn Center. Victoria plans to attend a music conservatory to major in violin performance. An Essex resident, she studies privately with Ann Cooper.

Quinn Parker, trombone

Quinn Parker is a senior at Mount Mansfield Union High School. A VYOA member for the past seven years, his trombone career began at age eight  on an old Conn trombone that belonged to his great-grandfather. Quinn’s “Ah Ha” moment as a musician happened during Mr. Peters’ tenure, when he was kicked out of a Sinfonia rehearsal for blowing spitballs out of his trombone mouthpiece. Lesson learned? “The experience taught me the importance of focus,  not only in concert,  but also in practice. The trombone section still has plenty of fun, but we get more done when we concentrate and actively participate in the rehearsal of our music.” Quinn plans to continue in music, studying musical performance or music education.  A resident of Richmond, he is a trombone student of Bob Wigness.

Liam John, cello

Liam John is a senior at Essex High School. His desire to play the cello was fueled by his great-aunt, a cellist who visited every summer from Connecticut. Intrigued by the big sound of her cello, he began his own music studies in the fourth grade. In his six years as a VYOA member, Liam has become closely connected to his fellow musicians and to the organization. “I have become more than a cellist. I have grown as a musician and as an individual. I have become a part of an orchestra and the VYOA family,” he states. A defining moment for Liam came when he played Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony with the VYO at last year’s winter concert – he felt the orchestra played together as never before. He describes this experience using the words of Israeli conductor Zubin Mehta: “…in the cosmos…” A resident of Essex, Liam currently studies with cellist John Dunlop.

This week is a personal milestone for me, as it marks the end of the second year of my three-year residency with VYOA. It has been an awesome first two years!

During my most recent VYOA week, I visited three schools: Winooski High School, Burlington High School and Edmunds Middle School. I have visited Winooski High and Edmunds Middle School before, but this was my first time visiting Burlington High School. Each experience was incredibly unique and each classroom filled with talented and thoughtful music students that represented a large cross-section of Chittenden County’s youth.

At Burlington High School, I spoke about my music for a guitar class and also a combined class of students taking band and chorus, and they asked some great questions. They seemed very intrigued by what my wife does (she’s the concertmaster for The Addams Family on Broadway) and also by how I structure my day. It seems that a common concern is how to deal with modern distractions such as Facebook and Twitter. I explained my daily schedule and how weekends basically don’t exist in my world. They seemed fascinated by this.

In Winooski High School, I once again sat in on a piano class led by Cathy Mander-Adams. This class consists of ELL (English Language Learning) students from all over the world. I also attended her choir class and listened to a nice choral arrangement of “These Green Mountains” that Cathy was teaching the class. We had an in-depth discussion about the challenges of working with kids from around the world, particularly with regard to communicating, since many speak little or no English when they arrive to the school.

At Edmunds Middle School, I met with band director Tim Buckingham and choral instructor Betsy Nolan, talked to students in just about every grade level and listened to pieces they had composed. Many of the students are currently participating in the VT MIDI Project, so it’s encouraging to see that composing music is being so successfully integrated into the music curriculum. The titles of their pieces were quite colorful, even one about squirrels being run over by a tractor, (or something like that). Interestingly, their titles were often not really related to the music they’d composed, so we discussed how to create titles that better reflect what the music sounds like. I also participated in a huge drumming circle led by UVM student teacher Allie Campbell, with approximately twenty students playing African-style hand drums. As a percussionist, I’ll be the first one to say that keeping twenty kids in line while holding anything that makes a loud noise is pretty difficult, but Allie did a great job as ringleader. We all had fun with call and response and playing small pieces Allie had written on the board.

I received a lot of intriguing questions at all of the schools, everything from “What’s your favorite note?” (for the record, I love them all equally!), to the disturbingly frequent question of how much money I make (that varies considerably depending on the length of the piece, instrumentation, etc.), to how long it takes me to write a piece of music (also variable, but I can usually write anywhere from 10 seconds to a half a minute of music a day).

At the invitation of UVM composition professor David Feurzeig, I gave a lecture for his composition students and played a few of my pieces. The class even included a VYO alum who is now studying composition! That made my heart proud.

Towards the end of the week, I met with the two Jeff’s for the first time: Jeffrey Buetner, VYOA Choral Conductor, and Jeffrey Domoto, the new VYOA Music Director. I am trying to come up with a way to distinguish between the two in conversation, so I propose either calling them CJ and OJ (choral Jeff and orchestral Jeff, respectively) or JB and JD.

Brief survey:

[polldaddy poll=4901018]

We discussed the Big Commission for 2012: the twenty-minute work for The VYO & VYO Choruses that I will be composing for next season’s spring concert – my final event with VYOA. Our discussion centered on what, exactly, the piece will be about (top secret for now). The choir will most likely be greatly expanded for this performance and we hope to incorporate additional local singers not currently involved with VYOA. I may also design the piece so that a few of the choral parts can be extracted and programmed on separate choral concerts as arrangements for piano instead of orchestra. We are at the beginning stages so there is still a lot to figure out, but I am certain it will turn out to be an amazing project that will bring the VYOA a lot of positive attention.

My next blog entry will be about Did You Hear?, my most recent work written for the VYO Chorus & VT Youth Concert Chorale that was premiered by last week in Stowe and in Colchester. I will also write about my experiences with the choruses during the past week. Until then…

Robert Paterson is the Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with the VYOA. Music Alive is a national residency program of the League of American Orchestras and Meet The Composer.

My recent residency week was a roller coaster ride of mostly wonderful, amazing and fun experiences. I arrived on Sunday afternoon, and experienced one of the coldest days (in some places it was 28 degrees below zero!) in Vermont in recent memory. Everyone warned me: “Bundle up!” “Bring your fleeces!” “It’s going to be very cold!” (You know it’s serious when a Vermonter says that.) I grew up in Buffalo, and even lived in Burlington back in the 90s, so I thought I knew cold, but nothing prepared me for that day. It was absolutely freezing! Luckily it quickly warmed up to “normal” Vermont cold (read: shorts weather for Vermonters).

On Sunday, I heard the orchestra rehearse my Suite for String Orchestra. After a rough start, it sounded pretty good at the performance at Harwood Union High School (still a few rough edges, but not bad), and significantly better at the VYO Winter Concert at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts that Sunday.

The week was a whirlwind of activity. I was interviewed by Ellen Gurwitz for the online Stone Soup Radio show, as well as by Cheryl Wiloughby for Vermont Public Radio. Both interviews were great ways to reach larger Vermont audiences than I can at concerts or by visiting specific populations.

I also visited Winooski High School and Harwood Union High School. At Harwood Union High School, I met with two different classes. The jazz instructor was in the audience and he was so into my music and what I addressed in the first class that he invited his entire big band for the second class, so I spoke to a huge room full of students. They all asked great questions, and seemed excited by my telling them what it’s like to make a living doing something you love. We also talked about technology, and how distracting Facebook and email can be.

At Winooski High School, I met with a few different classes taught by Cathy Mander-Adam. Her beginning piano class consisted entirely of ELL (English Language Learning) students who are part of Vermont’s Refugee Resettlement Program. These students are from all over the world, from countries as diverse as Thailand, India and Africa. Watching them connect – and facilitating this connection – through creating a short piano composition was a fabulous experience.

Between classes, Cathy told me a heartbreaking story. Before arriving in the U.S., some of these students had never heard music before as it had largely been banned in their particular villages and towns. Many of these students are experiencing music for the first time, right here in Vermont. I think many of us live privileged lives without even realizing it. We think of music as a normal part of our everyday existence, but there are places in the world where people are simply not so lucky. I hope the Vermont music community realizes what an important role it plays in offering students the experience of music. Music is something we should never take for granted.

At the University of Vermont, I gave a lecture entitled “How to Make It As a Musician: Twelve Secrets to Success I Never Learned in College” for the UVM music department. Also at UVM, I was interviewed by Daniel Lynch on UVMtv, UVM’s student-run television station. I also attended many meetings with VYOA and other collaborating organizations.

A highlight of my week was making dinner for Katherine Kjelleren and her family. At the VYOA online auction in November they bid on and won my offer of preparing a vegan dinner in their home. I commend them for trusting that I would make them something that actually tastes good!  I love to cook and have been vegan for almost twenty years, and I am actually working on a recipe book so I am well-prepared for a fun job like this. The menu consisted of a Thai Red Curry dish, Chinese Tofu and Black Bean sauce and stir-fried bok choy. We spent a few hours talking while I cooked so I got acquainted with her sons Kameron (a VYO tuba player) and Thomas, who plays trumpet. My primary interaction with individual VYO musicians has been from afar, while they are on stage rehearsing, so it is especially nice to have a chance to engage one-on-one. I hope I’ll have more chances to interact with the orchestral musicians in a more personal way next summer at Reveille! I also hope they may feel freer to approach me as I continue to residency work next season.

The Flynn concert was a bittersweet experience. Post-concert, I attended a going away reception for Ronald Braunstein and Caroline Whiddon. I’ve known Caroline for twenty-three years and she is a good friend of mine. In addition, I enjoyed the time I spent working with Maestro Braunstein. Looking forward, I’m eager to work with Jeffrey Domoto, the music director designate and with Randy Rowland, the interim executive director.

Finally, I’m especially excited about working with Jeffrey Buettner and the VYO Chorus this April when they premiere my new choral work. Entitled Did You Hear?, I wrote it specifically for this choir, with their input, and it contains theatrical elements and includes allusions to Twitter via Tweeting sopranos – among other things! I’ll be working with the Chorus during April 4 – 9 as they put the finishing touches on their presentation of the piece. I look forward to seeing you there!

Rob Paterson, Music Alive Composer-in-Residence
Robert Paterson is the Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with the VYOA. Music Alive is a national residency program of the League of American Orchestras & Meet the Composer.