Each May TSO’s Young People’s Concerts bring the power of a live symphony orchestra to students in grades 3-6 from more than 80 schools. For many of the students, the concerts held at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall are the culmination of the yearlong Music in Schools program in which three of the TSO’s chamber ensembles (String, Wind and Brass) performed in their schools.
What do an Olympic gymnastics team and a symphony orchestra have in common? Teamwork of course! With the Paris Summer Olympics right around the corner, this year presented the perfect opportunity to perform an Olympic themed Young People’s Concert (YPC) to tell the story of how the orchestra must work together to create music.
“The program highlights how much we are a team and how, even though everyone’s doing a different thing by playing their different instruments, they’re all essential to make the final product. One of the aspects I love about orchestra and instrumental playing is the camaraderie. So often we have to act like a team, but also in terms of our instrumental preparation, musicians are athletes. We use athletic means toward artistic ends,” said Sean Bresemann, conductor of this year’s YPC.
The program is stacked with sports themed literature, including Going to Fly Now from the movie Rocky, Chariots of Fire by Vangelis and of course John Williams’ Olympic Spirit. Bresemann described the program as overtly “designed to be empowering.” He went on: “that involves a lot of speaking, a lot of examples, and the idea is to say, hey, we want to elevate your ear for listening. We’re preparing them to listen at a higher level, which for me is a big part of pursuing a music career. We are also developing our audience of the future. There’s a segment of the program where we joke, but at the same time are entirely serious, about how people can do my job. We have the kids conduct the orchestra with me.”
“We’ve got a good amount of variety in the program as well, including Zequinha de Abreu’s Tico-Tico no Fubá and Starburst written in 2019 by Jessie Montgomery, a current living composer who has been writing fabulous music. I personally think there’s an obligation in orchestras today that we have to honor the classics for sure, but we also have a responsibility to be inclusive and to elevate the work being done today.”
Sean Bresemann, a musician by training, grew up playing the French horn. He is currently finishing up his Doctor of Musical Arts with an emphasis in conducting at the University of Arizona. He is also one of the friendly and helpful faces of the TSO box office team.
