Five Talented Young Finalists Make One Exciting Evening
It was an impressive field of candidates with strengths that ranged from flashy pyrotechnics to the sweetly musical, but at the end of the night on April 27th, it was Keaton Ollech who walked away with first prize. Second prize went to Ceilidh Briscoe.
Ollech, who is fifteen and studies with May Ling Kwok, wowed the audience with his performance of the first Beethoven piano concerto, Opus 15. He will perform the Beethoven with the Sooke Philharmonic at our October concerts, and takes home $500.
Briscoe, who played the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5, K. 219, receives $300.
Cash prizes are courtesy of Long & McQuade.
This year’s jury was composed of David Stratkauskas, who leads the Victoria Children’s Choir—Apprentice Choir, as well as working as an organist and jazz musician; Dolores Vann, from Gabriola Island, who has a distinguished career as a violinist; and David Watson, our Principal French Horn, who is also a choir director and organist.
While the jury was deliberating, members of the audience were invited to vote for the young performers, and the audience had its own opinion. A total of 42 ballots were cast. People were asked to rank their top three favorites. When these votes were weighted and tallied, Blythe Allers had secured the top spot with his performance of the virtuosic Violin Concerto in E minor by Julius Conus. Keaton Ollech was in second place, and Ethan Allers secured third place with the Shostakovich cello concerto. Ceilidh Briscoe and Lucy Zhang placed fourth. Zhang played the Mozart piano concerto No.12, K.414.
The audience was invited to make comments, which you will see below the excellent performers’ photos, snapped by Michael Nyikes.
Of course the jury’s decision is the important one, but the audience choice ballots remind us of the subjective element in any artistic competition. All the young musicians who played on Saturday were impressive — no one present would have argued with that.
It was a delightful evening and it went very smoothly, organized by a team of Sooke Philharmonic performers and board members, who are always ready to support the next generation of musicians. The audience, too, was a mix of musicians and SPO volunteers, and of course the competitors’ family and supporters.

Ceilidh Briscoe – lovely legato… shows love and mastery of her instrument

Ethan Allers – great performance of a difficult piece

Keaton Ollech – such poise …. a joy to watch and listen to such talent

Lucy Zhang – slow movement took my breath away

Blythe Allers – gutsy, nervy feel to the playing… thrilling!

Norman and a few friends at Journey Middle School

Any musician will tell you there is a lot of work involved in his or her trade. First of all, time and effort in large quantities are needed to before you have mastered the skills you will need. Then you have to turn up for the variety of gigs you are lucky enough to line up. You will also need to teach your instrument in order to make ends meet. These are the facts of any musician’s life. It’s pretty full, especially if that’s how you make your living.
Norman Nelson, our esteemed maestro, has done a lot more than that.
Admittedly, he is a master musician, though it’s rumoured that he did have to learn, just like any mortal. He has had a long, illustrious career, as you can read in any Sooke Orchestra programme. However, he never paused at what is the usual life path, even for a first-class player.
Fast forward to fifteen years ago, when Norman and Jenny moved to Sooke. Any other musician with his C.V. would have said to himself: “I know plenty of people in the Victoria music world. I’ll ring up a few, and see what’s happening. I can do a little playing, maybe even a little conducting. There are several orchestras in Victoria, I believe. I suppose I can give a lesson or two.”
Not Norman. He decided to set up his own orchestra, and did – in Sooke. And it’s a great success. People come from far and wide, begging to play with him. Norman is very good at getting the best from each player, and of course, he’s a tremendous musician. Not only did he set up the orchestra—he added a week-long chamber music workshop, to share his own passion for and expertise in string ensemble playing. Then a concerto competition, to encourage all those hard-working, talented youngsters who would love nothing more than to play with an orchestra. Next, mentoring youngsters at the Sooke middle school, which was lucky enough to attract a music teacher able to get a music programme happening there.
All this did not come about solely through Norman’s own efforts. At each step of the way, people joined in to help, whether as volunteers or musicians or teachers, or supporters. But it was Norman and his wife Jenny who always put in the most work and who had the good ideas.
On December 1st Randall Garrison will be presenting Norman with the Diamond Jubilee medal. Other Esquimault-Juan de Fuca recipients are people who have served in fire prevention, search and rescue, and social activism. Chief Planes and Elida Peers each got one. Norman is the only artist in the bunch. Did he get it for playing the violin? We don’t think so. It was the incredible work he has done creating this great community of musicians, supported by Sooke, and all the wonderful music that is being enjoyed in Sooke, Metchosin, and Victoria.

Congratulations, Norman, from all of us!

photo Michael Nyikes

Alice Haekyo Lee, our October soloist, recently made time in her busy New York schedule to answer a few questions we sent her.

Alice, of course, won our hearts at the Don Chrysler Concerto Competition last spring, with her wonderful performance of the Saint-Saens violin concerto.

She is in New York enrolled in the Julliard Saturday school, and in case you don’t have time to look it up for yourself, below is what Julliard says about the program:

The Juilliard Pre-College Division is a program for students of elementary through high school age who exhibit the talent, potential, and accomplishment to pursue a career in music.

The curriculum includes weekly lessons in the major field, chamber music, and classes in music theory and ear training. Additional electives are offered in areas such as composition, music history, conducting, and other specialized topics.  Students are given ample opportunities in solo, chamber, and orchestral concerts.

Here are Alice’s remarks:

High Notes: How are you liking New York? How do you live, have you rented an apartment?

Alice: New York is really really really really really really awesome!!! And although my mom doesn’t like it as much as I do because New York is really crowded, I love it. I really like tall modern buildings and lots of lights and technology and colors and people and shops.

The only bad thing to me is that New York is really smelly, especially in the morning because all the garbage is put out in front of the restaurants.

But even though New York is so awesome, I still miss Victoria a lot! 

Hopefully by the end of this week, we’ll be able to go into our apartment (we’ve been staying for almost three weeks in hotels and home stays)

We have rented an apartment right across from Manhattan in New Jersey, and although we haven’t moved into it yet, we have been in it, and the view is fantastic because our windows face the city. 

H.N. Do you have siblings, and are they with you there?

Alice: I have an older brother who is 11 years older than me. He’s in San Francisco right now.

H.N. Which school did you attend in Victoria?

Alice: I used to go to St. Michaels University School, and then I switched to home schooling for middle school, so I have a lot of time for practicing violin.

H.N. Tell us about Julliard.

Alice: Juilliard is awesome as awesome can get. The outside of the building is made out of glass and is very modern looking while the inside is more worn down. Almost every hallway has students walking up and down searching for their classroom or talking with their friends or standing against the walls waiting for their classes. The thing I like most about Juilliard is that everyone has the same kind of passion that I have and I feel more like a normal person, when at school (or anywhere) I felt a bit lonely because everyone was talking about the latest pop star or video game and I wouldn’t have any idea what they were talking about. Even though after I have finished my classes on Saturday (pre-college is only on Saturday) and I think I’m going to drop from exhaustion, I really like Juilliard, just like the way I really like New York. 

H.N. Are there other students your age?

Alice: There are a lot of students who are my age (which is 12) and all of them are really good. 

I’m really looking forward in working with the orchestra!!!!! I will be returning to Victoria on October 22nd to rehearse for the concert.

photo: National Arts Centre

On Friday, June 15th and Saturday, June 16th, the Sooke Philharmonic will be performing Siyajabula! We Rejoice! by Malcolm Forsyth, who died last year.
The piece was written in celebration of the end of Apartheid in 1994.

Malcolm Forsyth was born in South Africa in 1936 and died July 5, 2011. He studied piano and flute, as well as trombone. He attended Cape Town University, and received an M.A. (1966) in conducting and composing. In 1972, Forsyth received a Ph.D. in Music, also from Cape Town University. He played trombone in the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra.
In 1968, Forsyth immigrated to Canada. He played trombone in the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (1968 to 1980) and joined the faculty of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he taught theory, composition, conducting and trombone. He was the conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra and held the composer-in-residence position.
His daughter Amanda is an internationally renowned soloist as well as Principal Cello with the NAC orchestra. She is married to Pinkas Zukerman.

Forsyth wrote for orchestra and brass ensemble as well as for strings, woodwinds, and voice.
The influence of black South African music, especially that of the Zulu, is evident in many early works such as Sketches from Natal (1970), Symphony No. 1 (1972), and Music for Mouths, Marimba, Mbira and Roto-Toms (1973).
Later works, among them Atayoskewin (1984) and Canzona (1985), have a First Nations flavour.

Forsyth’s music has been widely performed in Canada and abroad. He had commissions from the Canada Council, the CBC and Shell Canada. He wrote for and was performed by the Canadian Brass, Montreal Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Cape Town Symphony and Natal Philharmonic.
His cello concerto Electra Rising was composed for his daughter Amanda and was premiered by her in 1995 with the Calgary Philharmonic.

Forsyth was named Composer of the Year in 1988 by the Canadian Music Council. He won three Juno Awards for Best Classical Composition in 1987, 1995 and 1998 for Atayoskewin, Sketches from Natal and Electra Rising respectively.

When Norman Nelson joined the music department at the University of Alberta in 1980, he met Malcolm Forsyth, who had been on faculty since 1968. They shared conducting of the university orchestra. Forsyth paid particular attention to the brass and of course Norman’s attention was beamed onto the strings — particularly the violins!

Norman writes:

I met Malcolm Forsyth in 1980 at the Music Department of the U of A in Edmonton where we spent the next eighteen years as colleagues and friends. He was intensely against the South African government and its apartheid policy and equally intense about international soccer. Over the years we never tired of discussing both topics with passion. I have fond memories of an inebriated “performance” of the Mendelssohn String Octet at his home, which included a trombone (played by Malcolm) and a clarinet.
A few short days before he died, we talked a great deal about the piece we are playing in his memory, Siyajabula! We both determined that we would share a nice drink together after the performance in Sooke. Sadly, it was not to be.

Most of the Sooke Philharmonic players who knew Norman in Edmonton also, of course, knew Malcolm Forsyth.

Our concertmaster Anne McDougall remembers:

I had ear training with Malcolm. He was known for challenging discussions, and one time, people were talking about perfect pitch. Suddenly, he pointed at me and said, “Anne, sing an ‘A’ “, which I did, tremulously. His point was that, even those without perfect pitch can develop a pretty good pitch memory when we tune every day to the same note.
One other memory was entering the first class in September of twentieth-century harmony and analysis. The professor, Dr. Chris Lewis, had a very interesting and dramatic piece of music playing. We sat and listened, totally engrossed. Then he proceeded to talk to us about whether and how we know what the composer’s intentions were — after all, most of the music we play was composed long ago. But as for the piece of music we had just heard, all we had to do was go upstairs and walk down the hall… and ask Malcolm! The piece of music was Atayoskewin. I went out and bought the CD! The sad part of this story is that I never had another class with Dr. Lewis, as he was killed when his car hit a moose on a trip to Grande Prairie that weekend.

More information at http://www.sookesecretgardens.com/

Alice Haekyo Lee shows her stuff
Ethan Allers

Eehjoon Kwon

Andrew Kang

Nathan Bomans

The other four soloists were all so good that the jury had a hard time deciding who to choose as the second place winner – such a hard time that they awarded the second prize to all four!
They are:
• Eehjoon Kwon, violin, who played Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto
• Ethan Allers, cello, who played Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto No. 1
• Nathan Bomans, violin, who played Khachaturian
• Andrew Kang, piano, playing the Grieg
For the first time, the audience also had the chance to voice its opinion. Ballots were handed out at the beginning of the evening, and collected while the jury deliberated. The five performers could be ranked first, second or third.
When the ballots were counted, Alice Haekyo Lee also proved to be the clear winner in the audience’s estimation. Bomans came second, Kang third, and the other two were close behind. Fully seven ballots of the total thirty-two cast declared that the listener was unable to decide.
As one audience member commented: This was the closest competition yet and the caliber of musicians just gets better and better.Here are a few comments about the soloists:
• Kwon: powerful, confident… solid performance
• Allers: rarely have I heard a cello made to weep so hauntingly
• Bomans: perfect blend of technique, timing, tempo, expression and passion
• Kang: amazing, strong – the music comes from inside him
• Haekyo Lee: WOW OMG the best!!!Eleven year-old Haekyo Lee takes lessons from Michael van der Sloot. She has been playing the violin for six and a half years and is home-schooled.
The jury this year consisted of Shoko Inoue, pianist; Mary Rannie, bass; and Robert Skelton, violin.
The Don Chrysler Concerto Competition has been running for seven years. The winner has the opportunity to play with the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Norman Nelson, in our Celebration of Young Artists concerts in the fall (Sooke: Oct. 27; Victoria: Oct. 28). The four second-place musicians will receive $100 each.
Our thanks to Long & McQuade, who donated the prize money.
A special thank you and congratulations has to go to Elfi Gleusteen, who accompanied four of the five young contestants.
And of course, thanks and congratulations to all five musicians who provided us with a memorable evening. We were so impressed by all of you!

Jim Warner, Spring 2011

Dear Friends
By now, most of us in the orchestra have been notified of Jim Warner’s death and we are stunned and, of course, at a loss as to how to get our thoughts together. A few of us have been fortunate enough to have known Jim since those very first tentative rehearsals in the St. Rose of Lima Church basement when 14 or so of us simply prayed that Beethoven’s mind was elsewhere. That was back in 1997 and now here we are, a very few years later, and hundreds of dedicated lovers of music – whether players and colleagues, volunteers, board members or just audience members – have had the pleasure of hearing Jim’s lovely playing over and over again as the programs have slipped by and the concert seasons come and gone. I simply can’t say much more, except to anticipate the feelings that we all surely must feel – and say what a privilege it has been to have rejoiced with him in all his enthusiasm after a rewarding concert and shared his agonies beforehand in having to deal with all those wretched reeds. So – no worries now Jim, and my baton is still in C major, as you always pointed out …
Norman

This coming weekend, the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus joins the Sooke Philharmonic Chamber Players in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Join us on Saturday, March 31st, at the Sooke Baptist Church at 8pm, or Sunday April 1st at the New St. Mary’s Church in Metchosin at 2:30 pm, for a programme of work by this terrific seventeenth-century English composer.
There are several fine vocal ensembles in Sooke, and each has its own sound and character and type of repertoire, but the only the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus has the distinction of performing with an orchestra.
The chorus sings two programmes (four concerts) each season, one in December and one in March/April. This keeps the singers busy rehearsing once a week (Saturdays), from September to December, and January to March.
The choir had its start as the all-female Sooke Festival Chorus, under the direction of Christopher Symons, for the 2000 Sooke Festival of Performing Arts in August, 2000, and performed Symons’ own Mass for Three Voices. Gail Abernethy, who sang in that concert, recalls that the Sooke ensemble Ekoos formed the core of the Festival Chorus, and was supplemented by other singers. The chorus also performed the Vivaldi Gloria, under Norman Nelson, that August.
Men joined in 2001, and in October of that year, the choir performed the Vivaldi Gloria, with male voices this time, and Carey Newman, and Voya and Jo Yawney as soloists. Christopher and Sue Symons moved back to the interior, and then to England, where they are both still fine. They are currently living in Peasedown St John, just outside Bath.
The choir became the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus in 2002, with Mary Holland as director.
Wade Noble took over as the director in 2005.
Over the years, the chorus has sung its way through a notable selection of some of the most beautiful choral music written, including, of course Handel’s Messiah, but also the Rutter Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and Nelson Mass, Schubert’s Mass Number 2, Bach’s Cantatas and Christmas Oratorio, Cherubini’s Requiem, music by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, as well as Vaughan Williams Fantasia and Mystical Songs.
Dido and Aeneas is based on Virgil’s long poem about epic journey and war.
The chorus is made up of around twenty-five singers, more than half of whom are from the Sooke area, and the rest from the Western Communities. A quick review of the membership list reveals a variety of backgrounds: retirees, of course, but also potters, bakers, a mailman, a teacher, an osteopath. This miscellaneous collection of singers, under the direction of Wade Noble, produces a rich, nuanced sound that delights the ears.
Choir members all have previous singing experience and are able to read music, although being able to sight read is not an essential skill. Susan and Bryan Potter, who have been in the choir since 2002 and 2001 respectively, describe downloading their parts onto an MP3 player, and practising while doing dishes—definitely a pleasant way to multitask!
The Sooke Philharmonic Chorus is always open to new members, and, as in most choirs (it seems) the lower voices are especially welcome. Rehearsals are intense, but enjoyable and very satisfying, according to the Potters, who have been inspired by singing with the orchestra to the point of taking up wind instruments themselves.
Do join us this weekend to pay homage to Purcell, in a programme that includes, besides Dido and Aeneas, the Chacony in G minor and Fantasias Numbers 6 and 10.
See you there!

Anne McDougall – Concertmaster of the Sooke Philharmonic

When Anne McDougall moved to Sooke about a year ago, she knew exactly what she was in for. She had been coming out from Edmonton for a winter break for several years, and while here would help out her former teacher, mentor and colleague, Norman Nelson, by playing in the Sooke Orchestra. She played as concertmaster for two programmes in each of the two seasons before her move, and before that, would sit in with the first violins, if she happened to be here. One memorable concert, she jumped in to replace Sue Innes, our Principal Second, who had unfortunately fallen down the stairs and had broken a rib.

Anne would stay out at Point No Point, and she says her idea of a full re-charge was to sit in front of a window overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca and play Bach for solo violin.

She is a fourth generation Edmontonian, and comes from musical stock. Her great-grandmother, one of only ten white women in Edmonton, traveled across the Prairie with a small organ and installed it in her new home. On her mother’s side, her great-grandfather MacKay was a doctor and factor for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Chipewyan. He also played the violin, and his wife (another great-grandmother) was half-Gwich’in.

Anne’s father used to play records for her when she was a child, which she loved.

At age four, she started piano, but the instrument and the lessons were not a success, and she gave up playing music until the relatively late age (for a professional) of twelve, when she began violin.

She took to the violin completely. While still a teenager, she traveled to upstate New York for four summers to study at the Meadowmount School and took lessons with  Sally Thomas and Ani Kavafian. This was Galamian’s school, though she didn’t study with him personally. After high school, she continued her studies with Sally Thomas in New York City, for two years.

She then returned to Edmonton where she taught violin, and incidentally married, had kids, and also completed a degree in science at the University of Alberta.

The science degree was never used. She met Norman Nelson.

“It changed my life, meeting Norman,” she says. “He was so much the right teacher for me, and so different from what I had had before.”

Because she had started on her violin rather late, she had always felt at a disadvantage. She says that Norman took apart what she was doing and rebuilt it from the ground up. A lot of work, yes, but what he showed her was a revelation.

For one, what he said worked. For another, it freed her from the tension she had always had when playing. Then, like everyone else, she mentions his tremendous musicality.

“Norman is such a terrific player himself that learning from him is quite different from someone who is a teacher only.”

Her interest in music and violin (which had never really disappeared) resurged, but of course she was no longer a young music student with all the time in the world, and it took some years to reach full command of what Norman had to teach her.

He helped her into the world of professional music in Edmonton. She became part of the Alberta Baroque Ensemble for twenty years, played with the Edmonton Symphony off and on for eighteen years, and also did one musical a year for four years (each one a two-month run)  with the Citadel Theatre, and numerous other gigs available for a freelance violin player. She also taught for twenty-four years at  Alberta College Conservatory, and was the String Department Head there from 2002-2004.

Here in Sooke, besides being our concertmaster, she enjoys teaching violin and viola to private students, and volunteers group-teaching violin and cello at Journey Middle School.

She has a lovely house with a beautiful view that was built just for her, and she can play solo Bach overlooking  the sea whenever she wants.

Anne McDougall is a tremendous asset to Sooke and the Sooke orchestra and we are delighted she’s settled here!

A teacher at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Nancy is known around the globe for her light, crystalline voice, a repertoire that spans three centuries, and her ability to perform both large-scale works and chamber music. An EMC Solo Virgin Artist, she has recorded over 50 records, including Mozart’s Requiem, The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni. With the SPO, she will perform arias from Mozart’s Idomeneo, Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro as well as arias from Handel’s Rodelinda, Rinaldo, Agrippina and Giulio Cesare.

“It’s [Argenta’s] first time performing with the SPO, and we are extremely privileged,” says SPO conductor Norman Nelson. “She has chosen the repertoire she’s famous for: Mozart and Handel’s beloved favourites. She’s paced the repertoire well — there will be both sobs and shouts of joy.”

In addition to Nancy’s vocal works, the SPO will perform Handel’s Water Music and Mozart’s Symphony No.31, also known as the Paris Symphony, in recognition of the city in which it was composed as well as its distinctly Parisian quality. Under Maestro Nelson, the SPO and guest Nancy are sure to deliver another unforgettable performance!

by Jessica Woollard