When in China
Vermont Youth Orchestra will communicate through music
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Toolbox
By HANNAH VAN SUSTEREN
Correspondent - Published: June 17, 2007
Ben Green could not be more excited to be heading to China at the end of the month. There is just one problem: His double bass — imagine a 35-pound, 6-foot violin — is too big to bring on the plane.
On the positive side, that means the teenager won't have to haul his double bass on the overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai or through narrow streets in Hong Kong, like the young flutists, violinists and trumpet players who will be his traveling companions.
Green, a senior at Rutland High School next fall, is one of 92 members of the Vermont Youth Orchestra embarking on a two-week performance tour of China.
"At every city, they're renting me a different bass," Green says. "I'm going to have to get used to playing a different instrument before each concert."
He and his peers will also have to get used to playing in some spectacular places: atop the Great Wall, in the black marble Beijing Concert Hall and in venues in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong.
The tour of China is the group's second high-profile trip since Troy Peters became conductor in 1995. The orchestra, for musicians in eighth through 12th grade, draws its members from throughout the state.
"We viewed Carnegie Hall as an exploration as to what travel for the VYO could be like," says Peters, who took the orchestra to New York City in 2003. "When we got back we said, OK, where do we want to go next? There is a huge interest in Western classical music in China, and American orchestras are such a novelty."
The students held fund-raisers throughout the year and each paid roughly $3,000 for the trip.
During each of the five concerts, the group will perform works by Brahms, Verdi and Tchaikovsky, as well as American and Chinese composers including Morton Gould, Aaron Copland, Li Huangzhi and Lu Qiming.
Their usual once-a-week rehearsals are being stepped up to daily this week in preparation for their departure from Burlington on June 24. During this final week, the students will also attend Chinese culture lessons led by Lee McIsaac.
Between tours of traditional tourist attractions — the Summer Palace, the Shanghai Carpet Factory and the Pagoda of Six Harmonies — the students will have the opportunity to collaborate with local musicians at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and middle-schoolers in Shanghai. Ending the tour in Hong Kong on July 7, the Vermonters will share the stage with the Hong Kong Youth Symphony, playing "Spring Festival Overture" by Li Huangzhi — a piece originally written for Western symphony orchestra and then transposed for a Chinese orchestra.
Green, who has been principal bassist of the youth orchestra for three years, says he's excited about the collaborations. "I'm really looking forward to what the Chinese orchestras are like. They use different instruments, and I think the sound is going to be interesting."
Jenna Cameron, principal flutist and a new graduate of U-32 high school in East Montpelier, notes that the group played for the Chinese ambassador during his visit to Vermont this year. "He mentioned the intensity of musicians in China. They start playing when they're really young. I think we're all just hoping we can match up with them."
While the students naturally worry about basic problems that arise during travel — getting lost, having clean water, dealing with the language barrier — Rebekah Gordon, a violinist going into her senior year at South Burlington High School, seems to articulate the excitement of the musicians: "I can't be nervous about a specific concert or anything like that because I just keep thinking, 'Wow, I'm going to China.'"
"I'm most excited about trying to interact with people in China," says Kelsey Calhoun, 17, a home-schooled bassoonist from Jericho. "Having the common ground of playing music is going to be a great way to start talking."
As they talk and travel their way through China, some of the Vermonters will also be documenting the journey in words, photos, and audio and visual recordings.
Green, Calhoun and 23 others are participating in a project spearheaded by Geoffrey Gevalt, founder of the Young Writers Project, to create a collective journal of their trip. They've been working with Gevalt since March to sharpen their video, blogging and photography skills.
The Young Writers Project, a nonprofit organization based in South Burlington, is dedicated to helping students write better.
"We know that if we get people to write about an experience, they learn more, they observe more, they are much more connected to what is happening," says Gevalt. "The idea was to see if we could get kids interested in writing about their trip, and as we explored it more, we decided to use sound and sight."
The students have already begun blogging on the Young Writers Project Web site.
Each day of the tour, the 25 kids will set out to explore China — some with video cameras, others taking photos or recording audio. Daniel Houghton, who has been working on The China Project with Gevalt, will upload their work to www.youngwritersproject.org/ vyo/.
Excerpts from the blogs will also be published in newspapers around the state (including this one), and Vermont Public Radio and Vermont Public Television have expressed interest in audio and video footage, Gevalt says.
"There are a number of reasons we decided to do this trip," explains Peters. "The musical value of having our whole year to work toward this culminating event, it helps the students bring a higher level of commitment and focus to what they are doing."
He adds, "There is also such a general educational value to travel, seeing a different culture. We (are entering) an era when China is a preeminent force. This is something the students carry with them for the rest of their lives."
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