Sharing gift of music with young people helps them broaden world of the arts
Published in the October 26 – November 8, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Music Director and Conductor Tony Quartuccio warms up the musicians prior to the Oct. 8 “From Broadway to Hollywood” pops concert.
At its inaugural “From Hollywood to Broadway” pops concert, the South Valley Symphony built on its mission to introduce orchestral music to local young people. Among the initiatives at the concert held Oct. 8 at Gavilan Community College was a special lottery allowing 10 young people to sit with the orchestra for one of the pieces.
Among the young people ages 12 to 18 selected for the honor of being with the musicians during the performance of “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” were Morgan Hill home school students B.J. Buciak, a seventh-grader, and his sister Chandler Buciak, a ninth-grader.
“I was surprised they picked my name,” said B.J. who plays the cello. “At first it was really loud and almost overwhelming. And then you kind of got use to it. I felt the floor vibrating, and it was really good.”
Chandler plays the violin and piano and was also impressed by the experience of being with the musicians.
“It was really loud,” she said. “It was just an amazing experience. The music was just amazing. It is kind of calming and relaxing hearing it.”
Several students from the Blue Ridge High School at the William F. James Boys Ranch juvenile detention center in Morgan Hill attended the concert as special guests of the symphony. Among them was 18-year-old Robert Tellez who greatly enjoyed the experience of being able to watch the musicians perform music from such popular films as the “James Bond” series, “The Lord of the Rings,” and “The Pirates of the Caribbean” as well as Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to Candide” Broadway musical orchestral piece.
“Actually, I went to a symphony when I was in elementary school, but it’s been a while,” he said. “I really tried to pay attention to the big movements and what the musicians were focusing on. It was really impressive. I can’t imagine how hard they must have practiced and I really appreciate it. It was really nice.”
Another Blue Ridge student, Abel, said he was impressed with the “American in Paris” by George Gershwin. “It felt like it took them a lot of years to practice that,” he said.
Blue Ridge student Ricky said it was his first time in the audience of a symphonic concert and a good experience for him being treated to music he generally would not listen to.
“I saw that instead of just playing an instrument, they really had to get into it and feel the music. I noticed they did that,” he said. “The hardest one was the cymbals. You really had to be right on the spot…. I like experiencing new things and exploring stuff, so I would recommend it (to other students).”
Music director and conductor Tony Quartuccio said the South Valley Symphony’s mission of sharing the gift of orchestral music with young people helps broaden the world of the arts for them.
The symphony decided to open up the stage for the selected kids to be close to the performers as an experiment to increase their appreciation of the sounds and the feeling of being up-close to the music.
“The European tradition of having the audience and a gap between the musicians has always created a sense of separation,” he said. “And this is a way of bridging that gap, by having audience members on stage to feel the sensations of the music and watch the interactions of the musicians. Music is a nonverbal language that should be learned very early in life. And when kids observe and experience live, up-close and in public, I think it has an impact that will last their entire lifetimes — and that’s an important thing we need to accomplish.”
The symphony did a public outreach with the October concert with a special open rehearsal for students to encourage more families to attend. The pops concert was done especially to perform music that the students might have heard watching films and make it more appealing, he said. That helped bring in more than 300 people, with about 20 percent young people, he said.
“That’s what we wanted so much. It was our best October concert ever in terms of attendance,” Quartuccio said.
