Manawatu Youth Orchestra celebrates 60th birthday with a concert

The Manawatū Youth Orchestra on Saturday will perform composer Sai Natarajan's work We Yearn to Tell Stories. Photo / Supplied

The Manawatū Youth Orchestra celebrates its 60th birthday with a concert on Saturday.

The orchestra's rehearsals have been a Friday-night fixture for four generations of the city's young violinists, clarinettists and the other symphonic instrumentalists.

It is a special achievement, president Jeff McNeill says.

"The great thing about performing in youth orchestras is players get to create something together that sounds and feels far better than the individual parts. That is an immensely satisfying feeling."

He should know – his three children all played in the orchestra.

"Orchestral music has remained part of their lives as adults. Two of them now play in community orchestras as a hobby. They enjoy the change from their day jobs. They also appreciated being able to make social connections orchestral playing provided as students and when they shifted cities."

The third is a professional musician living in Germany.

McNeill says many Manawatū Sinfonia members began as youth orchestra musicians.

On Saturday, the orchestra will perform the world premiere of a composition by former youth orchestra violinist and now rising film and video-gaming composer, Sai Natarajan.

"We Yearn to Tell Stories is a story about telling stories itself," Natarajan says.

"A film and game composer creates music to accompany a story. The music has to immerse the viewer within the narrative and world, and it has to bring out the emotions the characters experience, with the end goal of helping the viewer feel those same emotions themselves."

Begun as a university orchestration exercise, the music quickly became more than an assignment, Natarajan says.

"I wanted to portray the ebbs and flows of the creative process, but more than anything I really wanted to embody that feeling of joy that a writer experiences when they see their story spring alive."

The orchestra will also perform Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Tickets are limited and available only in advance to ensure Covid-19 conditions are met.

The Details
What: Manawatū Youth Orchestra Spring Concert
When: Saturday, October 30, 7.30pm
Where: Speirs Centre
Tickets: Eventfinda