News
For a young viola player, a place with the National Youth Orchestra is a dream come true.
Riverview native Sarah de Niverville has spent seven years working her way to the top, and now she will spend her summer rehearsing and performing with 100 other top young musicians, performing all over the country.
'We have the chance to play our repertoire, and we can really play largescale works this summer,' Sarah says. 'We will get to perform Mahler's Symphony No. 9 - it's an hour and a half long.' The National Youth Orchestra began its season in Waterloo on June 23, and it will run through to Aug. 12. Sarah says the orchestra is nearly finished the chamber music program, which runs for two weeks.
'We are rehearsing at Wilfred Laurier University (in Waterloo, Ont.),' she says. 'We haven't started performing yet. We do a chamber music program for two weeks where we divide into smaller chamber groups, (then) we will start orchestral.' Those rehearsals as a full orchestra began this week.
The orchestra will remain in Waterloo until the end of July, and then they hit the road, touring through Ontario, Quebec, then going out west to Alberta and B.C. Rehearsals consist of chamber groups in the morning, followed by coaching in the afternoon with professional musicians.
Sarah, 22, has been playing the violin since the age of five, and has more recently moved to the viola, a slightly larger instrument in the string family. She says the viola opens up more doors as a musician.
'There are a lot fewer players for viola,' she says, 'and there are always people (orchestras) looking for them. There are more opportunities.' Sarah joined the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra in 2004, and performed with it until 2009. She has also played with the Long Island Youth Orchestra and travelled to Scandinavia. She played with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra for four years following the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. She says those experiences have prepared her for her summer with the National Youth Orchestra.
'The tours were intense,' she says. 'We'd be rehearsing for a good part of the day and then we'd do concerts.' Antonio Delgado, the conductor for the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, is in Venezuela and was unavailable for comment, but president Ken MacLeod says he is thrilled to see another young performer chosen for the National Youth Orchestra.
'I'm delighted,' he says. 'It's a real testament to their skill and talent and an indication of the strengths of the youth music program here in New Brunswick.' Sarah was asked to return to the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra in 2011 to travel to Vienna and to play alongside her sister, Abigail, who plays the oboe. The orchestra won the 2011 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival Competition that year.
The young musician was also with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra when it performed in China in 2007 and Italy in 2005.
'That was incredible to do,' Sarah says. 'I still talk about those trips all the time.' Sarah's mother, Barbara Safran de Niverville, a visual artist, says that her daughter's love for music was apparent from a very young age.
'She was very musical from the time she was a small baby,' Barbara says. 'She made up a word for music. She could carry a tune and pitch when she was still a toddler in the back of the car in her car seat - she has a very good ear.' Barbara remembers her daughter practising the violin during her middle school and high school years in Riverview.
'She is serious about music,' she says. 'She practises a lot every day and it was really the focus for most of her time in middle school and high school.' She also understands her daughter's love for orchestra, and the relationships formed through music. 'She really enjoys the camaraderie and the blend of music while you're playing. I've been there a few times while they practice - it's a very exhilarating experience to hear all the instruments together.' Sarah says she does occasionally pick up the violin to play special events.
'I play weddings and things like that, for violin,' she says. 'I fool around on the piano a bit, as well.' When she's not practising the viola or touring the world, Sarah enjoys listening to the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell. 'I think I was born in the wrong generation,' she says.
Sarah recently earned a degree in music performance from the Université de Moncton, and hopes that the National Youth Orchestra will further prepare her for her dream of being part of a professional orchestra.
'I would like to be part of a professional orchestra someday. I think this program will take me to the next level.'
