NACO conductor thrills giant band

By Caroline O’Neill

An unexpected spring snowstorm didn’t stop more than 1,300 students from congregating at the Aberdeen Pavilion on March 24 to participate in a performance of a lifetime.

“I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out because there was all of these kids from different schools and none of us had actually played together before,” said Hana Gustyn, a Grade 10 student at Glebe Collegiate Institute.

Gustyn and 80 other students from Glebe were among the throng of teenage musicians conducted by the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Alexander Shelley for the Music Ignites concert. The Lansdowne Park performance was part of Ottawa 2017’s “Ignite 150” umbrella program, a set of events and experiences held in the capital throughout Canada’s year-long sesquicentennial celebrations.

“Alexander Shelley said at the concert the closest he’s come to conducting 1,300 people in a band like that was when he did a four-part round with a thousand people,” said another Glebe student, Michael Silveira. “Not something half as complicated as Hallelujah with 27 different instruments and parts to keep track off,” said the baritone saxophone player.

Genevieve Cimon, the NAC’s director of music education, called the rendition of Hallelujah “absolutely spine tingling.”

While conducting 1,300 students is no easy feat, the students said Shelley somehow managed to bring the group together.

“He also gave attention to each section,” said Rishi Rajkumar. With breaks scattered throughout the day, Shelley worked with sections from brass to Rajkumar’s own section, percussion.

In addition to the late Leonard Cohen’s iconic song, the students also played O Canada. For a short time the band was expected to perform the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, but that idea was scrapped. Schools were said to have received different arrangements of the tune.

“It was so special to see them work with Alexander Shelley,” said Sandra Christie, a music teacher at Glebe. “When Shelley spoke there was silence and everyone was hanging on to his every word.”

The hundreds of students milling around the pavilion meant the performance was closed to the public, but Christie and other teachers were relieved of their usual conducting responsibilities and served as the audience.

“When Alexander Shelley and the music department of the NAC was contacted by Ottawa 2017 to produce a spectacular event involving young musicians, we jumped at the opportunity,” said Cimon.

Music Ignites was billed as a collaboration between the NAC, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and the Ottawa 2017 Bureau.

The Glebe Collegiate intermediate band practises twice a week. Rehearsal for the performance with Shelley was incorporated into the schedule.

The students also received a private practice with an NAC conductor a few weeks before Music Ignites.

The performance may have been a quick taste of a potential professional career, but the students highlighted the importance of extra-curricular activities.

“You don’t need to make it your main career,” said Ben Flack. “You can just do it on the side.”

Not every high school band member gets to enjoy the perk of playing for Alexander Shelley, but Glebe’s budding musicians work towards semi-annual music nights attended by hundreds of parents and community members, as well as themed concerts each year.

For students such as Flack and trombone player Adam Coplan, who’ve been making music together since the sixth grade, the performance will be a cherished memory.

Coplan called the Aberdeen Pavilion event a unique opportunity.

“1,300 people playing the same song, at the same time, under one conductor,” he said. “ I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”