By Josie Gibson
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| Trumpeter Dmitry Serebrianik; the Hanoi Opera House; a Vietnamese musician in action. | ||
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For the young trumpet player, what comes to mind is the stimulating introduction to other cultures and musical traditions.
One example was when he and fellow members of the New Monash Orchestra spent an entire day workshopping with Malaysian music students in Kuala Lumpur, working towards a joint performance of a Haydn piece neither group had played before.
"It was great for our musicianship it didn’t feel like competitiveness," he recalls. "We worked really well together. It was great to see how they approached a classical repertoire."
Unlike Dmitry, concertmaster Joanne Wallwork is a veteran of foreign travel. The Monash music lecturer and doctoral student has travelled widely and spent time in Asia, Europe and the UK, and a year at the Moscow Conservatory.
She says the highly successful tour provided orchestra members with rare professional touring experience as well as a huge dose of excitement. "It was only the adrenalin they left with that kept them going, and it lasted the whole trip."
Such international exposure helps to raise the standards as well as the profile of the New Monash Orchestra,
regarded as one of Monash’s most important cultural assets.
Now in its eighth year, the orchestra has been the cornerstone of efforts to develop the abilities of some of Monash’s most talented music students. Members include students from the Bachelor of Music course and from all other faculties as well as professional musicians and students from other institutions.
Conductor and musical director Andre de Quadros is an accomplished musician with a distinguished career in Australia, Asia and Europe. Under his tutelage, the orchastra has played with a range of leading soloists, including Yuri Rozum and Anastasia Chebotareva from Russia, Graham Ashton from England, and Michael Bouvard from France.
For violinist Kathryn Dean, a third-year Arts student majoring in music, the July tour has fuelled hopes of performing overseas.
"It was amazing," she says of the orchastra's warm reception in Vietnam and Malaysia. "It's really made me want to travel. I'd love to see the world with my violin."
| For information about Monash University’s concert series, contact concert manager Ms Nadia Sartori on (03) 9905 9034. |