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| Trombonist Gregory van der Struik tutors Ballarat High School Students via video-conference |
It’s a lapse they’ll get used to, as more than 40 students embark on a one-of-a-kind learning adventure with volunteers from one of Australia’s premier orchestras. The students are communicating with the AOBO via video-conference.
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| AOBO Clarinetist Richard Rourke tutors some saxophone students. |
First off the mark is the Ballarat High School stage band, who are already a talented group. As they blast trombones and tickle guitars to the popular strains of Christine Aguilera’s Carwash, it’s hard to imagine the teenage musicians will be equally at home with the conventions of opera.
But that’s partly what they’ve come to learn. OA instrumentalists are tutoring small sections of the Ballarat High band using the technology before the band travel to Sydney to get a glimpse of life inside Australia’s national opera company.
Opera Australia principal Jacqui Dark has taken a more conventional approach to tutoring as part of the program: stepping back into the high school class rooms where she once juggled Pythagoras’ theorem with difficult arpeggios.
The former Ballarat High student challenged some teenage singers with the famous Brindisidrinking song from La Traviata.“It was a bit of a tough ask, as not only was it in a classical style which they'd never tackled before, it was also in another language,” Jacqui said. “We ended up singing on la la la so that we could concentrate on singing technique rather than language. The kids did a brilliant job with a very difficult piece of music and came so far in such a short time!”
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| Jacqui Dark puts some Ballarat High School singers through their paces at a vocal workshop |
The students were far from intimidated in Jacqui’s presence, and asked really interesting questions. “I find that people are often surprised to find that we’re just normal, down-to-earth folk and not at all snobby or diva-like (Well, most of us!)," she said. "I suspect that when they made me sing, it might have been a bit of a surprise to their ears, as I’m a tad loud in a small, enclosed room!”
Used to singing musical theatre or pop songs, the students were initially apprehensive about singing in a classical style. “But by the end they were just having a ball and singing it without inhibition," Jacqui said. "I love that classical music was totally demystified and not a scary, elite, refined art form to be feared or avoided, but rather a pretty cool and fun new genre to tackle! I think they felt a huge sense of achievement at having conquered what initially seemed a pretty daunting vocal task.”
It’s vital to engage young people with classical music, Jacqui said. “The earlier you're introduced to this type of music, the more you learn to love it and the less it seems some distant, elite art form. My little boy Xander is only 13 months old but is riveted whenever classical music comes on, even in ads. He sat glued to the TV watching Peter Grimes - I could hardly believe it!"
Classical music doesn't have to be inaccessible, and treating it as "elite" is something we learn, Jacqui said. "Kids actually love it and we need to give them more credit and not put classical music in the "too hard" basket. Just stick it on the CD player now and then and watch their reaction! Having said that, Xander also loves The Wiggles.”