Hélène Grimaud will accompany the young players during the 2016 International Tour; Photo: (c) Mat Hennek Deutsche Grammophon.
Australians are no longer victims of the cultural cringe, believing all artists have to head overseas to prove themselves.
But international experience is still an aspiration for many artists, at all stages of their careers. For some, that opportunity does not come until they are well established.
But the Australian Youth Orchestra’s international tour enables young performers to experience world stages. CEO Colin Cornish has seen the influence the tour, which occurs every three years, has on emerging musicians.
Pushed outside their comfort zone and given new learning experiences, their skills develop exponentially.
Building confidence
Cornish said the experience of playing in a different country was powerful in building a young person’s belief in themselves and what they can achieve.
‘That experience of stepping out and playing to a different audience, being recognised in a different way, playing where great composers and conductors have before, immediately raises their level of self esteem. That can help a young performer aspire to be even greater than they thought they could be before.’
‘At the age of 18 to 25, or for someone even as young as 15, that can be a really influential experience. For someone who does it five or six times later in their professional career, it might not create exactly the same kind of momentum in terms of developing their desire to be a really great artist the way it does for young players,’ said Cornish.
Mentors
The opportunity to work alongside established practitioners in their field is another source of inspiration for young artists.
The 2016 AYO International Tour young players will work with the pianist Hélène Grimaud and conductor Manfred Honeck.
After working with artists of such high calibre, young players will come back from tour and say, “I would love to play the piano as well as she played the piano.” It just changes your understanding of the music and what it is to play an instrument,’ said Cornish.
Not only do mentors become role models, but they also offer valuable insight into the kinds of career opportunities available and information about what it is actually like to work in an ever-evolving industry.
‘What does it involve to be a member of a professional orchestra like the London Symphony? What’s a day in the life of a musician like? These days it’s not just turning up and playing a symphony, it’s actually everything from concerts for young children, to improvising music, to collaborating with different types of artists and genres,’ said Cornish.
‘I think the orchestral musicians of today will help the young players understand more about their career opportunities but also more about the pathway of how you might get there.’
Image: supplied.
Practical Experience
As developing artists, the chance to gain experience overseas is available through programs that place young people in the arts on an international stage.
By playing to a new audience and in a different location each night, the young players on the AYO tour begin to learn the practical skills that only come from experience. In this context they learn how to play together, how not to stick out and when to follow, said Cornish.
‘Sometimes when you go into it at a young age you think you need to be the loudest. But actually everyone has a different role to play to ensure that you get a fantastic orchestral sound. I think that teamwork, that balance, they develop it over the nine concerts they play together on the tour.’
‘Once again we are talking about people who might be doing this for the first time, so they are discovering that and they learning how to adapt their performance and their sound for different types of audiences and different types of rooms.’
Career opportunities
International experience is also valuable for people beginning their careers as it allows them to develop networks and contacts for further study and future career ambitions.
For Belinda McFarlane who was in the AYO in 1988 and went on the international tour through Europe and Asia, the experience led her to stay on in England.
‘Within about a year, she had auditioned with the London Symphony Orchestra, did a little bit of work with that orchestra, and then received a job offer from them and has been there ever since. She is now one of the directors of their education program. In fact she is coming back to join the AYO tour in July as a tutor of the young players who are on tour this year,’ said Cornish.
As in this case, musicians use the tour as a stepping stone that led them to go on and find a job in a new country they had worked in.
For those who decide to stay on in Australia, learning to play night-in-night-out on tour puts the young players in a strong position to do a really good audition for an orchestra, which can increase their chance for a job offer, said Cornish.
2017 applications for the AYO close on the 17 June 2016. Instrumental programs are on offer for young musicians aged 12-28 years. There are also programs on offer for composers, recording engineers, orchestra managers and music journalists (aged 16-30 years).
For more information visit http://www.ayo.com.au/content/2017-applications/gk5hfc
