Exchange: Youth from both cities will perform orchestral works in concert

C5

BRUCE BARTLETT
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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SAINT JOHN - Forty-three teenagers from this city and Kitchener-Waterloo are getting together to make music thanks to funding from YMCA Youth Exchanges Canada.

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KâtÈ Braydon/Telegraph-Journal

Student musicians practise Ouverture des Nations, by Telemann, at Saint John High School on Friday. Half of the members of the orchestra are from Saint John, the other half from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. The two have come together to perform some concerts.

The first part of the program took place last week when 21 students from Ontario spent five days in the city, living and practising with students from the District 8 Senior Orchestra.

From Nov. 24 to 29, students from Saint John will be hosted by the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Sinfonia, where they'll put on a public performance.

Last week the newly formed group managed to rehearse together for the first time and took part in some workshops to prepare for the concert at the end of November. They also did a half-day of gardening and cleanup work along Harbour Passage on Saturday to pay for the help they received from the YMCA to cover their travel costs.

The gardening work was arranged by Jane Barry of Greater Saint John Community Foundation, which has been involved with cleanups along the trail for the past six years.

Passengers from a cruise ship looked impressed by the work going on and were stopping to talk to the young people preparing the flower beds for winter.

Helen Gollings of the District 8 program said the students are learning two pieces of music in very different genres.

"One is a Baroque piece by Telemann, an overture, and the other is music from The Pirates of the Caribbean, so there is a real contrast between the two," she said.

The groups managed to do a lot of things together musically and socially, Gollings said.

The YMCA pays for travel between communities but the groups are responsible for all other costs.

One of the chaperones from the Kitchener-Waterloo group is a District 8 Orchestra alumni, Lance Ouellette. He now plays with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and works with the Youth Sinfonia.

Ben Marmen, 16, a violinist with the District 8 Senior Orchestra, took part in the public service portion of the program on Saturday, pruning dead branches from shrubs along with his fellow musicians.

"I find the stringed instruments are really close to the human voice," he said. "Any stringed instruments are really close to my heart. I really enjoy playing them."

Julie Baumgartel, conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Sinfonia, said the group doesn't get to travel much so this was a new experience for them. She is hopeful that it will help them to bond more as a group.

Molly Dea-Stephenson, a violinist from Kitchener, said practising with a group of new people made her kind of nervous at first.

"Because they are kind of a senior orchestra and we are an intermediate orchestra, but it was fun, it was good."