Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra with the Qatar Music Academy’s Soloists and Youth Orchestra performing during the event.
Doha: The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) and Qatar Music Academy’s Soloists and Youth Orchestra mesmerised the crowd recently with their awe-striking performance of classical music featuring exceptional students showcasing their talents as soloists and orchestra musicians.
The concert held at United School International at The Pearl-Qatar is a comeback performance since the COVID-19. Since 2016, an annual concert is being conducted, with the exception of pandemic years.
Conductor Giovanni Pasini told The Peninsula that the performance features musical grade students from Grade 4 and above and ages are from 11 to 19 years old.
The concert according to him is an “experience for the next generation of musicians to the amazing and colourful sound of an orchestra from within.”
“For the first time, and for a couple of months they are treated as professionals and they rehearse as such. They have a chance to sit next to a pro-member of QPO and learn all the tricks of the job, and during the last week of rehearsals sitting side by side they make a huge progress, and they start to understand the deeper meaning of music.”
“They finally realise why all those hours of hard practice and sacrifice were necessary. It has happened in the past that such experience has inspired some students to take professional music studies at prestigious universities abroad. Such experience is meant to create the musicians of tomorrow, and the public gets to see them in the making.”
The event, according to Pasini, is something unique that only takes place in Qatar and a small number of other places in the globe.
The young generation of musicians during the concert are from Qatar Youth Orchestra (QYO), the flagship instrumental ensemble of the Qatar Music Academy Western Music Department. It was formed in 2014 under the direction of head of Western Music Anne-Marie Pigneguy, inaugural conductor Giovanni Pasini, and QMA music professors Katalin Varro and Rachel Seay.
Pasini who is also the Principal Viola of the Philharmonic explained that QYO students get to learn the art of orchestral playing; each two-hour rehearsal is divided between sectional time with an instrument expert coach and a full-ensemble rehearsal.
QYO plays frequently throughout the year and has previously been featured in concerts at the National Museum of Qatar, the Qatar National Convention Center, and the Ceremonial Court of the Qatar Foundation. It maintains a strong relationship with the QPO and plans one event annually in which musicians from the QYO perform with the Philharmonic in a combined concert. The Qatar Youth Orchestra’s student members, who attend QMA from all around Qatar and are between the ages of 11 and 19, come from more than 20 different nations.
The programme of the concert includes the music of Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major Hob XVIII11 and Violin Concerto in G major; Johann Sebastian Bach: Minuet and Badinerie for Qanun and Orchestra; Max Bruch: Concerto No. 1 in G minor for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 26; Camille Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto; Pablo de Sarasate: Introduction and Tarantella, Op. 43; Grigoras Dinicu: Hora Staccato; and Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” D759.
