To kick off the Christmas season, the Thompson Valley Orchestra is once again holding one of two concerts this orchestral season.
At fifty-six members, this is the most players the orchestra has ever had in recent times. After the pandemic, many new people such as middle schoolers and retired seniors joined the orchestra, leaving the orchestra extra excited for its performance.
The orchestra is also having special guest guitarist Cal Lewis Lundgren play alongside the orchestra as many selections, such as the “Christmas Eve Sarajevo”, better known as “Carol of the Bells” calls for an interesting guitar melody.
The orchestra was founded by Norris Berg 25 years ago, who was a string teacher at Long and McQuade (formerly The World of Music) originally as a small string ensemble. As time went on, wind players began to show up, to what it is now, the Thompson Valley Orchestra or TVO for short as most musicians in the orchestra call it. After Noris had retired, Steve Powrie (French Horn), John Franks (Trumpet) and the late Don Bennett (Trombone) conducted the orchestra on a rotational basis, as people still work full-time and the orchestra does not have a full-time conductor.
Steve Powrie, the conductor for this year’s concert for the Thompson Valley Orchestra, is also a longtime member of the orchestra for the past twelve years, playing the French Horn as a child and is now his principal and favourite instrument and originally starting on the viola.
“I started in the KSO (Kamloops Symphony Orchestra)”, he said, noting that he didn’t practice as much as he would’ve liked to.
Generally, the Thompson Valley Orchestra will have two concerts, one during the Christmas season, usually hosted in early December, and one in late spring held in May.
This season’s music selection includes pieces by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), a travelling rock group that gets together around Christmas and New Years’ time, and is one of the biggest touring bands in the world. It has been around for nearly 25 years, and takes classical and Christmas music and makes it into rock. Powrie selected the pieces himself and is very excited to have the Thompson Valley Orchestra perform it.
“We were going to play the TSO for the Christmas concert before COVID hit,” Powrie said.
The theme of this year’s Christmas concert is “A Rockin’ Christmas”.
“The whole concert is Trans-Siberian Orchestra”, Powrie stated, “Because of the theme, I threw in a few jazz and rock-themed pieces”. There are pieces that just the strings or winds play as part of the selection as well.
One of Powrie’s favourite pieces is titled “Christmas Eve Sarajevo”, which has a particularly tragic backstory. During the Siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s, there were bombs and missiles hitting Sarajevo. One of the bombs hit people standing in line waiting for their food and ended up killing 22 people. A professional cellist, part of the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra, had decided he would sit in the crater where the people were killed, and play for 22 days. He felt that music was a healing power for hate and war. This was his way of making a situation a little bit better. Every time he played, people would gather around and listen to his music.
Powrie said that even with the tragic backstory of the piece, it is one of his favourites this season.
COVID has been particularly hard on the orchestra and its members. No arts group was holding a concert or event.
“There was an enthusiasm and appreciation for music”, Powrie said when asked how COVID had impacted the orchestra.
He stated that musicians used to have a choice and take for granted to play whenever they wanted to. It was hard being two metres apart from each other, and COVID had taken that choice away that musicians could not be in a group together.
“People were just so happy to be back”.
Musicians are also quite excited as it has only been the second Christmas concert since COVID had shut everything down.
This year’s orchestra is quite full, although the orchestra still actively looks to recruit new members. Sections are fuller than they have been, Powrie stated, acknowledging that recruiting new members could sometimes leave an orchestra with too many instruments of one kind, however, the Thompson Valley Orchestra has been lucky that instruments are nicely balanced and sound really nice with the selection they are playing.
Powrie says he truly appreciates how each instrument is good at something others aren’t, admitting as much as he likes the French Horn, some instruments can bring out parts of a piece that other instruments cannot do. “There is lots of favouritism, but more specific to what that instrument might be doing in a piece”.
He notes that he really enjoys some of the melodies the trumpets play in one of the pieces in the selection. Powrie also added that he has handwritten some parts for the saxophones to add them into the concert as well, for extra texture.
One thing that this orchestra has that most don’t have is three oboes, which is hard to find as it is not a very popular instrument like the flute or trumpet. In traditional orchestras, there are normally two of each woodwind. Powrie agrees that having three oboes is great because one of the players can act as a mentor to the other two, especially at such a special time for the orchestra..
One of the oboists in this orchestra is Stacey Grant, who has been with the Thompson Valley Orchestra for nearly 16 years.
The oboe is noted for being one of the most challenging instruments to learn, and even harder to master, so the frustration of starting one of the hardest instruments at 11 was unreal. Grant notes the hardest thing about playing the oboe for her in particular is being consistent with practice. Getting together to practice with the other oboists has also been difficult, so each relies on the other to ensure they practice before the concert.
“I find it really difficult to take even three days off, and to try to go back and have a practice session, more so than other instruments”, she said, acknowledging being consistent can sometimes be hard, especially with the oboe. With an upcoming concert, practicing consistently is essential to making sure notes and dynamics are played correctly.
However, in contrast to the difficulty of the instrument, she admires how expressive a player can be with it. As the oboe takes great skill and effort, it also takes much patience to master. The selection that this concert has is quite easy, and it is important to stay in tune. “It is a unique instrument that not everyone can play,” Grant says continuing her input that anyone can play the flute or clarinet, but not everyone is able to play the oboe because of its difficulty. “Even though I don’t like the challenges sometimes, I do like the challenges sometimes.” She alludes to the number of runs the woodwinds have in many pieces, making it a little more challenging than other pieces within the selection.
Grant admits that two hours can feel like two hours if there aren’t a lot of solos or woodwind parts, but she is still rather excited about the concert.
As Steve Powerie was asked about his opinion about having three oboes in the orchestra, Grant says she loves having her own section in this year’s concert. She notes the frustration that playing in unison can be difficult to keep in tune, but having one playing the lead part and others playing the harmonic parts with the other oboists can sound really nice, as there are a few pieces that have first and second oboe parts.
Grant was also asked about her favourite piece in this season’s selection. She says she is particularly fond of “The Mountain”, better known as “The Hall of the Mountain King”, although this year’s selection is particularly simple to what she is used to playing. She admits that almost every piece she is playing has “crazy” runs, which she finds challenging.
If someone was to pick up the oboe, Grant highly suggests getting a private teacher as quickly as possible. “Most band teachers don’t know enough about the oboe to help”, stating that many new oboe players need the most help when they first start playing it, noting the scheer difficulty of playing the instrument. It is also a good idea to have a teacher run through the concert selections on any instrument to help the student with any mistakes or questions before the upcoming performance.
If anyone is interested in getting tickets to this year’s Christmas Concert, conductor Steve Powrie says the best way to get tickets is from the Thompson Valley Orchestra website https://www.thompsonvalleyorchestra.ca/ where people can buy them online. He says TVO contracts with Eventbrite and that is where people can buy tickets. He highly advises people to buy them online ahead of time because in most cases, they are sold out before anyone can buy them at the doors on concert night. Concert dates are December 3rd at 7:00 pm and December 4th at 2:00 pm at the Kamloops Full Gospel Tabernacle on 1550 Tranquille Road.
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