On Sunday, more than 50 young musicians from across Tasmania took to the stage in Launceston's Albert Hall as they presented their first Northern show of 2022, Impressions.
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Members of the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra and TYO Percussion Ensemble played several pieces including Moussorsgky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Mendelssohn's Nocturne from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol.
TYO chief conductor Christopher Bearman, OAM said the pieces had been specially selected for the burgeoning musicians as an introduction to orchestral repertoire.
"They are standard symphonic repertoire and the whole vision of the youth orchestra is to introduce young musicians to this wonderful, standard orchestral repertoire, which they wouldn't get to play anywhere else except in a youth orchestra," he said.
Mr Bearman said the purpose of the orchestra was to develop young musicians with some expected to pursue a career in classical music, while for others the journey was the purpose.
"There will always be a percentage of students who come through youth orchestra systems who go into conservatoriums to have a career in music, but there are also a lot of students for whom music will remain just a lifelong hobby or pastime," he said.
"They will have had the experience of being in the youth orchestra, they will have ensemble skills, and they will have musical knowledge.
"That's invaluable if they want to become community musicians."
One of the young musicians in Sunday's performance was 18-year-old concertmaster Aaron Molnar who played first violin in the concert, but also plays the French horn.
He said being part of the youth orchestra had benefits beyond the music alone.
"It's so rewarding because we get to engage with this highly challenging repertoire in a fun way and it's quite good for character development, building friendships while you're exploring this wonderful music," he said.
With an orchestra made up of musicians aged between 13 and 25, Mr Molnar said there were many skilled musicians in the group all performing at a high level.
"It's definitely highly skilled," he said.
"There are a wide variety of skill levels - it's like a little family in a way - and it's good to see the development over the years, I feel like we're really performing at a high-level today."
Mr Bearman said patrons in attendance would be treated to some "lively dramatic and fun music".
"The music is particularly exciting, it takes us through all the human emotions you could possibly imagine," he said.
"Pictures at an Exhibition was written by Moussorsgky after he'd gone through a gallery and he wrote the musical interpretation of the pictures he saw, whereas Capriccio Espagnol was inspired by Spanish folk tunes - although it was written by a Russian - it's inspired by Spanish folk music and it's really lively.
"Pictures are dramatic in every way and Capriccio Espagnol is just fun, it's excellent." Mr Molnar said he was particularly looking forward to the Spanish piece describing it as a "fiery celebration".
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