Utah Symphony violinist Yuki MacQueen reports in Friday’s (4/13) MusicalAmerica.com (subscription required) about her recent travel to Haiti’s National Orchestra Institute with sixteen other Utah Symphony musicians and Music Director Thierry Fischer. MacQueen writes: “Partnering with Building Leaders Using Music Education (BLUME Haiti), we had designed an ambitious plan for a 95-member all-Haitian student orchestra to perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 after just one week of coaching…. The [students’] goal is to someday create the first national orchestra for Haiti…. In July of 2016, three musicians from the Utah Symphony—cellist John Eckstein, oboist James Hall … and myself—volunteered to teach at a summer camp hosted by the Sainte Trinité Music School.… In March of 2017, the first National Orchestra Institute (NOI) was held…. For the 2018 NOI … we brought a luthier program to teach the fundamentals of string repairs … and a high-level administrator to teach a music management seminar (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Executive Director Scott Harrison)…. All of us paid our own expenses, with additional funding coming from private donors [and] musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra…. the Haitian students were able to attend the NOI under full scholarship.” Part two of the article will be posted this week.
Posted April 16, 2018
