Earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit Venice High school. I attended a string orchestra class led by Ms. Iras Roback their music teacher. Ms. Roback was gracious enough to invite me to hear her 30 students play and take advantage of my visit to promote the VCO. The students were just back from their summer vacation, yet their play was wonderful! I can’t wait to revisit in a few months for one of their concerts.

I thought that the students are very fortunate to have the opportunity to play five days a week with such a great coach! I wished I had the same opportunity!

I brought along and distributed a VCO promo flyer to the entire class and let them know that we would be delighted to welcome VHS musicians on Thursday rehearsals. Hopefully a couple of Ms. Roback’s students will decide to join us soon.

To put things in perspective, the VCO is about attracting musicians of all levels.  Some local high schools have wonderful music programs and students who might be interested in joining an orchestra. Luckily, with the help of local music teachers, a couple of students have recently joined us.

Recently, we put in place an “Ambassador Program”. It should help attract more students and build a bridge between the schools and the VCO. Most importantly it can put the student in a leadership position in his/her school and help build his/her Resume. To qualify, the student needs to attend three consecutive practice sessions and show an interest in helping the orchestra grow.

Many moons ago, a teenage student’s Resume showed her work experience with an organization keen on attracting other students – the good old days. She also showed on her Resume that thanks to her good work, she was appointed an Ambassador to help her attract more students to that organization.

The following summer, when jobs were much tougher to get – sounds familiar? – her Ambassadorship appointment was discussed during an interview and helped in getting her the job she had hoped for. How do I know that? The name of the student who shared this story with me is Lori Mabardi, my daughter.

At almost every opportunity I have to describe the orchestra, I am asked the question: What’s the typical experience of musicians joining the VCO? Or, what level of music difficulty do you play; which eventually leads to visiting the membership make-up. My typical answer was something like: Our musician’s experience vary from beginner to professional level player.

Essentially, our members have one of the following profiles:

• The beginner who can learn by sitting next to better players who pulls them along to a higher level of playing;
• The invertebrate amateur who simply likes to play;
• The more mature player who once played well and desire to maintain their skills;
• The younger musician who aspires to become a pro musician, and;
• The pro who simply likes to play while helping others in reaching higher levels of playing.

I think that’s a much better description of our membership than the one I used to give.

Selecting sheet music to play during our formative phase is not a simple mater. If our objective is to become a “Full” orchestra, the music should include most parts of a full orchestra. Yet I am discovering that wind instrumentalists are rare to find in Venice. I recently consulted with a Florida based well know conductor who confirmed that amateur wind instrumentalists who live in smaller communities tend to join bands rather than orchestras; a fact I can’t ignore.

The music written for a “Full” orchestra will sound thin without flutes, trumpets, trombones, or saxophones. One would think that the obvious solution is to start building the orchestra as a “String orchestra”. Yet, you never know when a brass or woodwind player will call to join you. Without wind parts to show, we will not be able to attract wind instrumentalists.

We are facing a chicken and egg challenge.

A simpler approach to gradually transition from a string to a full orchestra is to build a repertoire based on series of music compilations published in individual booklets for each instrument; typically 8 to 12 pieces of music per booklet.

These series are intended for like or mixed instruments and work for any size group or combination of instruments. They are generally available for strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion.

The orchestra can start as a smaller ensemble like a string quartet and add parts as new instruments join in. This approach is significantly less onerous than starting with string orchestral pieces to be replaced by full orchestral ones as the group matures and transitions into a full orchestra.

We had an eventful and great practice time today. The two spectators who happened to pass by the main hall and a gentleman who came to inquire about us, grabbed a seat, formed our impromptu audience and enjoyed listening to our music. One might disagree with me, but I draw that conclusion based on the fact that they stayed around for the full 90 minutes! One of them mentioned that she could not understand how we sounded so good just after a few weeks of practice. 

To my friends who say “Who wants to hear an amateur orchestra” I say: Come and check us out on Thursdays, you might even decide to stick around!

The amateur violinist who came to check us out sounded a bit discouraged by what he described as the “great” level of our play. How does one balance attracting amateur musicians of all level without intimidating them by our rising level of play? And that is my question of the day. I don’t have the answer except that I’ll follow-up and encourage him to join.

• We are now fifteen accomplished and intermediate level musicians. I am thankful to all for sharing your precious talent and contributing to our weekly practice and play;
• We are building a repertoire of some nineteen orchestral classical pieces;
• Seven orchestral pieces have been donated to the orchestra;
• Our coach/conductor has taken charge and organized our music library;
• We are learning to play together while having lots of fun doing it!
• We are planning to play a couple of pieces during a Sunday service in September and a few more during November;
• Subsets of our musicians wanting to play chamber music are beginning to form; please keep us informed of your progress;
• Upon deciding to join us, a pianist has donated an electric piano to GS for the enjoyment of all; we are thankful for her donation to GS but most importantly for her talent.

Looking ahead, our objective is to grow our complement to 25 musicians by Q1 2012. We will maintain our recruiting effort and keep updating a few snowbird musicians who have already expressed a strong interest in joining us.

We are starting to create an awareness about our existence and to establish key contacts in the Venice community. With time, thanks to a growing reputation we will be able to attract more talent and share it with our community.

I welcome our musicians and friends’ feedback, ideas and help in continuing to build the VCO.

It’s always nice to return home following two weeks of travel. Yesterday when I returned from my few days out of town it was a bit different though. As I was heading home along Center Rd around 6 pm and passing by GS I noticed that there were quite a few cars in the parking lot and somehow wished I could join our orchestra immediately! But no, not too practical, I will have to wait until next week.

Today as I am catching up with my email I am gratified to know that we have been joined by two new members, I look forward to meeting them next Thursday!