On September 19th 2010, the World Youth Alliance, an organization whose purpose is to promote awareness about human rights, held its first public performance at Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer for their newly created chamber orchestra, made up of young musicians all whom are currently under the age of 18. The orchestra owes its wonderful performance and founding to Alexis Kende, a violinist herself, and also to her sister, Crista, a violist and the artistic advisor to the WYA Orchestra, due to their wonderful dedication as coaches to the young musicians.
These young string musicians prove that age is just a number, as they are playing the music of Bach and Tchaikovsky as well as fellow musicians years older than they are. Ranging from 10 to 17, these young musicians can put one in shock at how amazing they play at such a young age. These musicians were seen playing with their heart and soul and in fluid togetherness, which creates amazement for whoever is watching. Besides their abilities to play so well while being so young, many of them have interesting backgrounds, coming from different parts of the world and having different interests and hobbies besides music. For example, William McGregor, begun playing bass at age 10 and he told me his story of how he began playing instruments with a 1/8 size cello and as grew older he exchanged his instruments for slightly larger versions of the instruments’ original sized counterparts. Another example is Geeta Nazareth, a violinist and violist from Germany, who is fluent in four different languages and loves to write novels. Although they may have differing backgrounds, these musicians are united in the ability and love for classical music.
The pieces were beautifully well played. The pieces were full of emotions and passion. The soloists did well in standing out from the rest of the musicians. The music was played perfectly and was pleasing to listener’s ears. It evoked so much emotion in the audience and it was simply divine. Every musician was in unison and the passion was seen in every strum of the violin, cello and other instruments. One significant piece was Adagio for String Orchestra composed by Jay Greenburg. Just as the musicians, Greenburg is also young, only being 18, yet have wonderful compositions for strings. His young age made the already beautiful piece, make one sit in awe as the skill of Greenburg is surprising to see at such a young age. The whole performance was impressive and awe-inspiring.
