On the road: in and out of music

Last year, the Youth String Orchestra of Italian-speaking Switzerland (Orchestra d'Archi Giovanile della Svizzera Italiana) experienced a special journey: It was awarded "First place with outstanding success" at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival 2012 in Vienna. The Vienna award was not only the culmination of a long musical journey, it was also the reward for the work carried out over several years with great foresight and expertise by director Anna Modesti. She spoke about this unforgettable adventure in an interview.

The Orchestra d'Archi Giovanile della Svizzera Italiana

The dream comes true

The Summa Cum Laude international competition for youth orchestras and ensembles takes place every year in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, one of the most beautiful and traditional concert halls in the world. Our decision to take part in the competition was based on the dream of playing in this hall. Of course, nobody wanted to leave a bad impression, so we all worked together for two years to prepare for the competition. This long period of preparation can therefore also be seen as a kind of "journey".

The competition included a 20-minute rehearsal in the presence of a competition committee and two concerts, each lasting one hour, which took place at various locations in Vienna and the surrounding area. The prescribed repertoire had to include the first movement of Mozart's Divertimento K 136, a piece by a composer from the participants' country of origin and another work of their choice. Together with the young people, we decided on Policromy by Carlo Florindo Semini and the Serenade for Strings by Dvořák. This latter piece, which is not easy to play, should be the worthy conclusion to a path in the course of which we have already dealt with works such as the Holberg Suite by Grieg, the Serenades by Elgar and Tchaikovsky and Mahler's arrangement of the Schubert Quartet Death and the girl had been busy.

Then the big adventure began. In order to keep to the very tight budget, we left Lugano the evening before by bus. Although we were pretty exhausted after the journey, we were able to save an overnight stay in a hotel. Once we arrived in Vienna, the competition organizers had planned the activities of all the groups in detail for the entire four-day stay. The three musical highlights were of course the competition itself and the two concerts, but there were also many opportunities to exchange experiences between the members of the 36 participating groups from all over the world. Most of the participants were accommodated in the same facility, which made it easy to meet and get to know each other.

Anna Modesti in the middle of her orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein

The role of the orchestra leader

Even outside of our travels, I don't see my role as just being responsible for the music. The Orchestra d'Archi Giovanile della Svizzera Italiana is made up of young people between the ages of 11 and 18. Most of them do not pursue any professional musical goals. Their participation in the orchestra is based solely on their own motivation and the joy of shared, unforgettable experiences. That's why, during the year, I don't just limit myself to what is played during the three-hour weekly rehearsals, but also try to support activities that promote group spirit and social cohesion among the orchestra members. This creates a climate of trust and sympathy, which then allows me, among other things, to travel the world and know that I can count on the young people: from 2005 to the present day, we have performed in the USA, Scotland, various Italian cities (Trento, Verona, Bologna, Ferrara, Genoa, Rome, Trieste) and Switzerland (Winterthur, Basel, Zurich) and - perhaps I have simply been lucky - I have never found myself in situations that would have been difficult to master.