DalSymphony gears up today (March 18) to present its most anticipated concert of the year: Concerto Night. This often-sold-out performance highlights 欧宝体育鈥檚 most talented student soloists, while offering a diverse and thrilling program of vocal and instrumental music.聽
Concerto Night celebrates the unique diversity of the Fountain School of the Performing Arts鈥檚 student body, offering performance opportunities to music majors and minors. Cindy Liu joined the Fountain School as a music minor and is a third-year biology student.
Concerto Night is a dream-come-true moment for me
鈥淚 never imagined I would be playing in the music faculty,鈥� says Cindy, 鈥淪o when I see those opportunities, I go grab it. Being in Concerto Night is a dream-come-true moment for me.鈥�
Cindy Liu on flute.
Tickets are available at聽dal.ca/artscentre
Projecting for the occassion
Soloists for Concerto Night are selected after a competitive audition process and prepare for months leading up to the concert. Tenor William Austin, a medical sciences major minoring in music, will sing as a soloist in Concerto Night for the first time. Even after passing the audition, performing with an orchestra presents challenges in endurance and projection that William has diligently prepared for.聽
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e standing at the front of the stage and you have 30 instruments behind you, you can't always be confident that you are being heard鈥� says William.
William Austin, tenor.
Another soloist Emma Thornton-Ockrant, a fourth-year soprano shown below left, agrees.
鈥淲orking with an orchestra is a skill in itself,鈥� she says.聽
Despite these concerns, both say they are looking forward to Concerto Night as a celebration of their time at the Fountain School. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice way to commemorate the music side of things and tie it off with a nice little bow,鈥� says William.聽聽
Soloists and orchestra members alike work for months to prepare the repertoire for the full-length concert. For those who are soloists and orchestra members, like fourth-year composition student and violist Gabriel Galvis Rangel, the work is demanding, yet rewarding.聽
鈥淚t's a humongous undertaking for the orchestra. We only have so many rehearsals with the soloists before we actually hear how they want to interpret it,鈥� says Gabriel. 鈥淚t requires a superhuman effort from all the people involved.鈥�
Capturing a soloist's vision
The interplay between the soloist and the orchestra allows performances to become a collaboration between all musicians and composers represented on stage.聽
Fourth-year composition student Jeremie Boudreau comes from a classical, jazz, and contemporary background. He hopes to express his unique style in his guitar Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodriguez.聽
鈥淚 want to pull from my entire musical essence so when people hear it, they鈥檒l know that it鈥檚 definitely Jeremie flavored,鈥� he says. 鈥淏y being aware of how the piece should be played, I know when to push the envelope.鈥澛�
For pianist and composition student Young Liu, Concerto Night is an opportunity to engage with composers he deeply admires. 鈥淎 piece of music is like a dialogue that transcends time,鈥� says Young. 鈥淚 love the things聽Rachmaninoff writes. I love how he makes you feel like these passages want to go somewhere but they end up failing. Then this motif tries again and ascends to the most ethereal form of what it can be.鈥澛�
Young Liu.
Although Concerto Night highlights specific students, soloists agree that the best part of the evening is performing music that they love as an ensemble.聽
鈥淚t's like breathing in and out,鈥� says Jeremie. 鈥淲e all collectively breathe as a musical organism.鈥澛�
We all collectively breathe as a musical organism
Concerto Night takes place Tuesday, March 18 at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in the 欧宝体育 Arts Centre at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available at聽dal.ca/artscentre.