On Saturday, March 12, Victoria Conservatory of Music (VCM) dean and chief artistic and academic officer Stephen Green will conduct the yearly Spark to Flame concert. Green says that this year’s concert will be aimed at giving experiences to young students who are seeking a career in music.
“The students get to perform with an orchestra that is our VCM chamber orchestra, and that’s usually a collection of some of our students and some of our faculty and also some local professionals, which are often members of the Victoria Symphony,” he says. “This orchestra this year is conducted by maestro Timothy Vernon, the artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria. So it’s a great opportunity for our student soloists to have that chance to be on stage and perform live with an orchestra of professionals, with a professional conductor and achieve a level that normally most people would not be able to access. So this is giving access to young students to something that is very difficult to get access to.”
Green says the VCM has been doing the annual concert for almost 15 years, and those in the concert have worked hard to get into it.
“It features a group of student soloists who have all auditioned in order to win a place in the concert. [The] students can be any age,” he says. “This year our youngest is 10 years old and the oldest is in their 20s and is a post-secondary student.”
Green says that this concert will feature mainly classical music as well as a little bit of traditional fiddle mixed in.
“It’s primarily classical music and concerto movements, so that’s a piece for orchestra and featured soloist,” he says. “So we have a collection of these pieces put together. One of the pieces this year will also be a Canadian fiddle piece for orchestra and fiddle. The arranger is Scott Macmillan, a Canadian from the east coast… We also have a piece for clarinet and orchestra, and one for flute and orchestra, one’s a cello and orchestra, one’s a violin, and two pieces that are for piano and orchestra.”
Green says that the main thing this concert will address is the need for community.
“The main thing about this is community, so to bring professionals together with students who are learning to become professionals at playing their instruments, this has a lot of influence,” he says. “It influences the students, of course, because it’s a great opportunity for them to play at a professional level with professionals all around them and it’s a great influence for those who are professionals to be reminded that they were once also students, and it inspires them to continue learning, because with music you don’t just learn to a specific point and then stop. It’s really a matter of lifelong learning. So we’re sort of completing the circle by bringing all of these people together.”
Green says that what makes music meaningful to him is its constant presence in our dally lives, and its ability to shape society as a whole as well as make a difference on a personal level.
“To me, it’s life,” he says. “It’s something that’s always present around us and is something that can shape society and can help every individual discover who they are.”
Spark to Flame
7:30 pm Saturday, March 12
$19.25, Victoria Conservatory of Music
vcm.bc.ca