National Youth Orchestra of Canada - Blogue des étudiants - Student Blog / Blogue des Étudiants

Everyone Loves an Epilogue

Episode No. 19 (The Season Finale) of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Daniel gives a heartfelt goodbye to the orchestra, and gives thanks to all those who made the 2010 season possible.

Thanks for making the Vlogs such a success, and I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Daniel

The End-monton.

Episode No. 18 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

The final city of the 22-day tour. Complete with lots of emotion.

Enjoy!

-Daniel

Rockin' To Cowtown

Episode No. 17 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Join Daniel as he travels througth the magestic Rocky Mountains, and makes a stop in Calgary, AB.

Enjoy!

-Daniel

The OK-anagan.

Episode No. 16 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

City no. 10, Kelowna, in the beautiful Okanagan Valley.

Enjoy!

-Daniel

Also, for photos of the event, please check the following link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=194156&id=562991804

Mainland Van

Episode No. 15 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Join our vlogger as he explores "sunny" Vancouver. Highlights include the Brass and Percussion Show Part II.

Enjoy!

-Daniel

The Island (or Part of it)

Episode No. 14 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

The NYOC spends time with sealife on Vancouver Island, in Nanaimo, BC.

Enjoy!

-Daniel

Ferries are Real

Episode No. 13 of Daniel's Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Our grand voyage from Toronto, On to Nanaimo, BC.

Enjoy!

-Dan

Dot my T.

Episode No. 12 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Join him as he shops, and plays a concert in Toronto, ON.

Enjoy!

-Dan

Québon!

Another Joint V-log between Dorian Cox and Daniel Mills. This time, join them on their adventures in Montréal, and Mt. Tremblant, as they perform, and record an album at the Schulich School of Music, at McGill University.

Enjoy!

D & D

Parliamentary Vloggers

The 2nd Joint Vlog between Dorian Cox and Daniel Mills. (Episodes No. 5 and 10 Respectively).

Join the NYOC as they spend some time in the Nation's Capital, and perform at the National Arts Centre.

Enjoy!

D & D.

Away We Go.

Episode No. 9 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Our stops in Stratford and Kingston.

Enjoy!

Daniel

Last Days in London (On)

Episode No. 8 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC.

Our final days in London, Ontario, including our last rehearsals, our first concert, and packing up for the bus.

Enjoy!

-Daniel

LasT bloG / First Show

* 24 juillet, Minuit 43!!! ... Bon, on peut dire qu'on est le 25!

Le temps a filé à toute allure depuis mon dernier blog et j'ai l'impression que la session de musique de chambre est déjà loin derrière nous...

Pour résumer, ça fait environ 10 jours que Maestro Jacques Lacombe est arrivé et qu'on répète intensémment le répertoire d'orchestre! Comme vous l'avez probablement remarqué dans le blog de Daniel, on avait un horaire de répétition assez chargé, mais malgré tout... We had a lot of fun!!! En fait, plusieurs personnes ont profité des temps libres pour explorer le bois et la nature qui nous entoure. D'ailleurs, 4 personnes ont failli s'y perdre par un beau dimanche...N'est-ce pas Noam ?!? Bon, cette histoire serait un peu trop longue à raconter...

Revenons à nos moutons, ce soir c'était notre 1^erconcert ici à London sur le campus de l'UWO, plus précisémment, dans le Giga Gymnase du ALUMNI HALL! Je dois dire que ç'a bien été pour une première...En général, les vents trouvaient que ça a passé vraiment vite et qu'on aurait eu encore des '' chops'' pour jouer Don Juan! Ha!ha! Bon, j'exagère un peu là, mais grâce aux répétitions assidues, nous avons maintenant des ''chops'' d'acier!!!

Sinon, on sent l'énervation dans l'air ce soir... Le fait de quitter Delaware Hall rend la plupart des gens heureux ou nostalgiques...ou un drôle de mélange des 2!!! Par contre, à cette heure, les couloires sont plutôt tranquilles...Beaucoup dorment, d'autres font leurs bagages et certains s'amusent à faire des bulles! Ha!ha! Vous reconnaissez-vous?!

Ça y est! Nous partons en tournée dans moins de 10h and We're ready for this! On se r'verra entre 2 bancs d'autobus!

Cornistiquement vôtre,

Marianne Martel

P.s. Ceci sera probablement mon dernier blog, puisque je ne sais pas si j'aurai accès à un ordinateur durant la tournée...Hope you enjoyed it!

A typical day at NYO

The violin section working hard during rehearsal

During the breaks, Chan Lee and violin faculty Steve Sitarski compete in planking

Talent show : Marilène Provencher-Leduc and Gabriel Massicotte-Rochon share a dance

Talent show : Staff, faculty and students performing Pink Floyd

The violin section received their annual t-shirt : the VioliNinjas !

Thank you violin coaches Mark and Steve for your hard work and patience.

Special thanks to Shima Takeda for the t-shirt design.

Beautiful lily in front of the rehearsal hall

NYOC Boys - Special Sing-along Edition

One of the many performances at the NYOC Idol talent show. A parody of this summer's "summer-hit" "California Gurls" by Katy Perry, featuring musicians of the 2010 National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

Feel free to sing-along. The lyrics are provided for you. Apologies for the sound balance problems.

Sectionals - Rehearsals - Idol

Episode No. 7 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience.

A brief look at the weeks building up to the first concert of the season.

Topics include sectionals, rehearsals, and the coveted NYOC Idol Show.

Enjoy!

Dan

No Time

The staff (with a little help... ok, a lot of help... from our video auteur, Mr. Mills) present to you No Time, a time lapse of setting up an orchestra... Cannes, you can find my contact details here.

What It Feels Like to Hit Things for a Living

So much has happened since my last blog. We performed all of our chamber music, on stage, on a boat and in a garden and we’ve begun our full orchestra rehearsals with Jacques Lacombe.

It feels great to be in an orchestra again after about 3 months without. Over the past few years, I’ve come to the realization that playing classical percussion (especially of the orchestral variety) can be extremely addictive. The phenomenon could be explained physiologically, since percussion often involves a lot of movement, adrenaline, and endorphins. Who wouldn’t get a thrill out of hitting a bunch of noisy things? But does that make me an adrenaline junkie?

I do crave that wonderful after-concert feeling that floods in as soon as the last chords sound. And I do wake up early for a run every second morning, whether or not I could use the sleep. I remember the feeling after I completed my first race, running 8km in 42 minutes. Exhilarated, exalted, adrenaline and endorphins coursing through my blood, I desperately wanted to hold onto the feeling for as long as possible.

The feeling is similar after a great concert. One of my most memorable moments is of finishing Schostakovich’s 10^th symphony with l’Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal. The work wraps up a lifetime of depression, oppression and censorship in 45 minutes through cruel satirical passages in extreme tempi and dynamics. Needless to say, by the end, when the timpani enter, pounding out the motive which represents the composer’s own identity (D-Eb-C-B for D. Sch.), I couldn’t help but feel the weight that he himself felt at the time in Soviet Russia as well as relief at finishing such an epic work. With tons of emotion running through my head, I floated on a cloud for about a day and a half, never wanting to come down. At some point, though, I inevitably had to land on two feet and start working hard again… until the next concert!

Another one of my greatest post-concert moments occurred last year with the NYOC. We played our last concert at Roy Thompson Hall. Mahler’s 6^th symphony is a turbulent affair that bestows the timpanist (and second timpanist!) the job of sealing the composer’s fate. Similar to Schostakovitch 10, the symphony ends after many ups and downs, false victories and mocking tones with the two timpanists hammering out the fate theme, the march to the gallows. (Way to kick a guy when he’s down!) All the emotion of the whole summer rushed in at that one moment of conclusion and I was overcome with elation, and sadness and an overall feeling of greatness.

I am already seeing this quality in Alex Dyck, the pianist slash triangle-player-in-training here at the NYO. We’ve taken on Alex as an extra set of hands in La Valse and in Scheherazade and he’s been doing a great job. (I’m sure he would admit that the triangle is harder than it looks!) Occasionally, I’ve looked over from my end of the section and have had the pleasure of observing the pianist’s awe-stricken, open-mouthed, unrelenting grin. Is it safe to say that there is no greater pleasure in life than hitting a triangle while colleagues whack a bass drum on one side and smash cymbals together on the other?

Let’s just say that I am an adrenaline junkie. Great. The first step is admitting it. (I suppose I shouldn’t let my addiction get too out of hand. Would paragliding off the side of a cliff be too extreme?) Here I am at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada where we’ll play 12 concerts in 22 days and where the rehearsals are of such high quality that I feel some of that same elation after each practice. The NYO must be a haven for people like me, people who can’t get enough of a musical thrill. It can’t be a bad thing, right? The way I see it, it can only make me a better runner, a better musician and a better person. I know that I am in the right place now and I hope that I can spend my whole life in pursuit of that wonderful feeling.

Our Meteorologic Adventure To Toronto

The first ever Joint Vlog with Dorian Cox, and Daniel Mills. (Episodes #4 and #6 of their own series, respectively)

Witness a day trip to Toronto and Back for the Brass and Percussion show with the NYOC, and the adventure that occurs.

Sincerely,

D & D.

Dorian's NYOC Vlog #3: I'm on a boat!

Hello again!

Here is my 3rd NYOC video blog, documenting my recent experience at "Music on the High Seas"

Enjoy :)

How Madrigal.

Episode No. 5 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience.

A documentation of NYOC's Legendary Madrigal Day.

Sorry about the incorrect image size. Technology sometimes baffles me.

Also, please ignore what I say about there being 10 groups. In reality, there were only 9. Perhaps I was hallucinating a tenth.

-Dan

'' De la musique avant toute chose.'' -Verlaine

Hi everybody! Bonjour tout le monde.

♦ Avertissement !!! Ce blog contient certaines expressions purement québécoises pouvant ne pas convenir aux anglophones pur laine!

Jeudi, 8 août. Il est présentement 23h23 ! Ca a été une journée particulièrement cocasse et tout simplement merveilleuse! En effet, comme plusieurs ont pu le remarquer ces dernier jours ''Y fA chaud en bébitte''. Bref, la journée a debuté, vers 8h ce matin, avec 83% d' humidité, 24ºC au thermomètre, mais en réalité on ressentait une température d'au moins 33ºC !!!! J'ai même eu l'impression qu'on a facilement atteint le 40ºC une fois tous reunis à l'intérieur de la salle 101 du Talbot pour chanter des madrigaux! Cependant, je dois dire que la musique a su me faire oublier la sueur, pendant un instant, car les ''Fala la la la'' m' ont transportée dans la fraîcheur et l'atmosphère de Noël...

Bref, on a passé pratiquement toute la journée à chanter en tutti, puis on nous a assigné un numéro et on a formé des petits groupes. Notre défi: mettre en scène un madrigal en seulement 2 répétitions! Je dois dire que ce soir, j'ai été charmée par la créativité de tous et chacun. C'était ''super duper nice''(expression typique de G-town)

''Bon ben, c'est icite que j'marrête, pass'qui faut aussi dormir si j'veux pas avoir l'air d'avoir passé la nuite su la corde à linge!!!'' En plus, il faut pas ''être trop maganée'', parce que samedi matin, une première répétition d'orchestre nous attend! ''À la revoyure ma gang de joyeux lurons!'' Ce blog était juste une première ébauche, mais attendez ''mainqu'ja revienne. M'en va vous faire'' un blog plus instructif! Il y tellement de choses à dire et à partager, mais le temps file à toute allure...

Cornistiquement, vôtre Marianne

P.s. Je dédie ce blog à Lauren. I hope you'll learn some expressions!

... I wrote my blog!

14 days on, 1 day off!

Hey everyone!

It's been way too long since I've posted another blog, but I have time to write something right now.

Today was our first full day off. I definitely needed one; 14 days of nonstop music is kind of brutal. But also rewarding. I have never played so much music in a two week period than this one.

The greatest thing about today was: no wake up call. Yesterdays wake up call was a Vuvuzela at 7:00 am. I mean, at least we have the soccer spirit here... A group of us walked to the mall after brunch to see Toy Story 3. Great movie - go see it if you haven't already. Afterwards, we were blown away by Anthony Blackman's DDR skills - apparently he's ranked #7 in the world!

Now it's back to the routine of sectionals, practicing, more sectionals, more rehearsals. Our first string sectional is on Friday and the first orchestra rehearsal is Saturday. I can't wait to come together as a group. Sectionals, for the violas, are going great! Watch out - we're a strong group this year! And I think we have the best spot for sectionals too: in the basement lounge. Our breaks turn into ping pong and foosball games. It's awesome.

Until next time, I'll try to put together a video or something.

Bye!

Dorian's Vlog #2: A Day in the Life (Chamber Edition)

Hello!

Here is my second NYOC video blog!

Sorry it took so long to appear. I filmed on Monday, and today is Saturday, but I was having some technical difficulties.

Either way, here it is for your enjoyment :)

Cheers,

Dorian

143 Years Strong

Episode No. 4 of Daniel Mills' Vlogging Experience with the NYOC. Special Canada Day Edition. Witness the unfolding of events on Canada Day, 2010.