Teenage musicians compose new fanfares for Sydney Opera House
Sydney Morning Herald, by Rose Powell,
The repetitive bell that ushers Opera House patrons to their seats is about to be replaced by soaring fanfares composed by some of Australian music’s youngest stars.
The Sydney Opera House, in partnership with arts education organisation Artology, has selected eight short compositions by teenage musicians, some as young as 13.
Sydney Opera House Chief Executive Louise Herron said she was delighted by how unusual each entry was, and how well they integrated the classic repetitive bell motif of a fanfare.
“The fanfares will be used throughout the 1700 performances in 2015 so these young people will be our most performed performers at the Opera House this year,” Ms Herron said.
For Paris Francis, 13, and Yilan Yu, 14, hearing their pieces played in the cavernous Opera House building was a surreal experience.
Yilan, a violin and piano player from Sydney Grammar School, said the 30-second duration made the daunting task of composing for the Sydney icon more achievable.
“I played around with some motifs and connected them into one piece. But it sounded too traditional so I added some novel accompaniments, like string flares and a triangle,” Yilan said.
Paris, a violin player and singer who attends St Catherine’s School in Waverley, said she was inspired by the military trumpet players at Westminster Abbey and the musical Les Miserables.
“I wanted to write something really attention-grabbing. I had one predominant idea and I rewrote it completely a few times,” Paris said.
Paris hopes to join the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when she graduates from high school. Yilan hopes to become a neuroscientist and dementia researcher.
The eight winning pieces were selected from 120 entries. The musicians received mentoring and coaching to develop their work before it was recorded by the Australian Youth Orchestra.
Other Sydney-based winners were Luca Warburton, 14, Marcus Milton, 14 and Lachlan Penninkilampi, 16.
The eight fanfares will be played for a year and the same competition will be run in late 2015 to select new fanfares for the coming year.
