Spark to Flame is a student concert held by the Victoria Conservatory of Music (VCM), a satellite campus of Camosun College. The annual concert is a tradition of the VCM as it works to highlight the talents of its students and engage the public, who may not have otherwise attended this type of event.
Seven students were chosen for this year’s performance, all young soloists with different musical specialties. The concert is also a fundraiser for the VCM, a non-profit organization whose mission is to train the next generation of musicians and keep the art alive.
VCM Music Performance diploma student Marlo Karakas is a vocalist performing this year. Karakas is in their second year of the two-year program, which Camosun offers in partnership with the VCM, and has been thoroughly enjoying their journey in studying music.
“I’ve never been one for academics, and when I was graduating [high school] I was excelling in music so I figured I may as well take a year or two at the Conservatory and see if I like it and I want to pursue it. And I love it; I’m just having so much fun. It’s just really cool to be able to do something I genuinely love and enjoy everyday,” says Karakas. “It’s a really cool program through the Conservatory and I get college credit from the Conservatory through the college, but I get to be at this cool downtown campus at the Conservatory, which is really awesome.”
Karakas has selected two pieces by Henry Purcell, a Baroque-era composer, for the concert. The student loves translating complex human emotions into something more digestible and understandable through singing.
“It’s so fun to take something so incredibly tragic, I don’t know why because it’s so macabre. One of my favourite things about music is that you can take these insanely hard to express emotions, these super raw, deep, animalistic feelings, and express them in a way that makes sense to you,” says Karakas. “I can take these other [works] and then interpret them in a way that is really emotional and deep. It really helps me work through some things, and that’s what I really love about singing.”
Karakas is the only vocalist in the concert; all the others play instruments, such as flute and violin. They’ve been preparing for weeks leading to the concert, including special rehearsals with a full orchestra and guidance from the Conservatory staff.
“I’m very excited to see everyone else perform because as a vocalist I don’t really have much familiarity with the more instrumental stuff. I’ve been hearing a bit of it, and it’s so cool because we have some really young performers who are insanely talented, and getting to listen to their work is something I’m really excited about,” says Karakas.
Spark to Flame gives an opportunity for the next generation of musicians to showcase their talents in front of a large audience.
“It’s going to be so cool to see different community members, because these are future professional musicians,” says Karakas. “These are young students and it’s going to be really cool to see, and to help fundraise for the Conservatory. It’ll be super fun to experience something kinda different because I know a lot of people aren’t familiar with classical music and there’s a huge variety [of performances], and I think it’ll be pretty cool.”
Spark to Flame
7:30 pm Saturday, February 21
$20, Alix Goolden Performance Hall
vcm.bc.ca