Summer Orchestra Camp

Over the course of a week, under the artistic and musical direction of Živa Ploj Peršuh, they rehearsed the music and programme for the final concert, at which they will this year be joined by the composer and bassist Lauri Porra from Finland. At the rehearsals, around 100 musicians practised pieces from films such as Kekec, Poletje v Školjki, Boter and others, which can also be heard tomorrow evening at Križanke.

Listen to the interview here: Val 202 • Aktualno 202 • Summer Orchestra Camp (rtvslo.si)

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

That was heard yesterday at one of the rehearsals of the summer orchestra camp, now organised for the sixth year under the patronage of the Slovenian Youth Orchestra. The camp is an opportunity to socialise and share experiences, but also to practise instruments, as the young musicians learn a selected programme in a single week for a final concert in front of an audience. Among the roughly one hundred young people rehearsing at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet in Ljubljana are two percussionists: 17-year-old Jerry from Klagenfurt and two-years-younger Lovro from Nadgorica pri Črnučah.

LOVRO

This is my first year here. Actually, a friend brought me – he asked if I'd come. We were chatting at school once and he mentioned it, so I applied. Otherwise it's really great; next year I'm going to the conservatory in Ljubljana, and I've also met some others who I'll probably see at school next year.

JERRY

This is my second year at this camp. I was here last year too, and because it was so successful I said I wanted to come this year as well, with a friend. It's also good fun, because we know each other from last year – I wouldn't say it's better, but it's better for connecting with people.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

How come you came from Klagenfurt to Ljubljana?

JERRY

Nothing like this is organised in Klagenfurt, and last year I saw it on Instagram, so I said I wanted to do it some time. Because there's nothing in Klagenfurt.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

The Summer Orchestra Camp is led by the conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh, and as she says, most countries in Europe have youth concert orchestras like theirs. But to organise a week-long camp where young people with different experience and prior knowledge, and from different music schools, come together is a rarity.

ŽIVA PLOJ PERŠUH (conductor)

I can't claim that this doesn't exist in Europe, but in the federation of which the Slovenian Youth Orchestra is a member, they admire us every year and ask us specifically about this method of working with young people, and about these programmes, because the programmes are special too: they are cross-genre, and of course they include some easier pieces for the very young – 12-year-olds come to us – as well as some very difficult, demanding works that any professional adult orchestra could take on.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

I was also told why they came by Vid, a horn player who travels in every day from Ig and doesn't sleep in the student residence like some do, as well as the cellist Neža from Cerknica, Jakob from near Celje, who plays clarinet and bass clarinet, and Lejla from Ljubljana, who plays viola.

LEJLA

It's great for me – I made friends with everyone really quickly, considering I didn't know anyone at all. The best thing these days was actually the adventure we had: a performance with musical improvisation. It was really the first time I'd improvised in front of an audience, and I loved it because I learnt something new.

VID

This is my second year at the camp. I'm having a really good time here. The company is very good, too. Yes, we sleep there – in the evening, when we get back to the student residence, we have free time and can hang out, but in principle we have to be in bed, or at least in our rooms, by eleven.

NEŽA

This is my second year here. I came because my friends and I agreed to come again, since last year was really, really good. If something isn't working, we practise it; we also had sectional rehearsals for three days, and I think it's going pretty well.

JAKOB

I think it's really great here. The company is excellent, we bonded quickly, and we're having a really good time together.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

The Summer Orchestra Camp is for young people aged 12 to 22. Among the older ones this year is Timotej from Ljubljana, and among the younger ones Ula from Logatec; both play the violin.

ULA

I don't sleep here, I come from home. Next year I'll come again and sleep here too. I really love playing the violin – actually, that's why I came, because I love playing this instrument so much. I don't play it at music school, though; I'm sort of self-taught. I did play for four years before, but then I stopped because I lost a bit of motivation for the instrument, and now I'm carrying on again.

TIMOTEJ

This is already my fourth time here. I came to keep in touch with the instrument a bit, because I don't play it professionally.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

The musicians spend eight hours a day polishing the programme and rehearsing for the concert. As our interviewees say, the programme, which this year is devoted to film music, is not too difficult, even for those who play only as amateurs. But there are also those who want to continue their musical path professionally.

NEŽA

I'm Neža, from Velenje. I play flute and piccolo. This is my second year here, and I came back because I think it's very important for a musician to gain experience in as many orchestras as possible if they want to do this professionally. I'm now going into my fourth year of secondary school, and then I'd like to enrol at the Academy of Music. I don't know whether in Slovenia, maybe abroad.

VERONIKA

I'm Veronika, from Ljubljana. Generally I play bassoon and piano, but here I'm taking part on bassoon. This is my first year in this orchestra, because I wanted to try out what a symphony orchestra is like, since I usually play in a wind band. I think it's really great, and my favourite piece of the film music is Moment for Morricone.

VERONIKA

Within a week, the young people thus came together as an ad hoc but also entirely genuine symphony orchestra – some of them for the first time. Ula, Iva and Lejla on their experiences.

ULA

It's great to play. We'd done it once before at our music school, but not with a proper symphony orchestra line-up. I really love not just hearing the strings but also the woodwind, brass and percussion – it's great.

IVA

And it sounds really good when all the instruments play at once, and it sounds really good when there's the main melody, a few instruments play it, and then there's the accompaniment as well.

LEJLA

Sometimes you can't even hear what you're playing because it's so loud, with so many instruments, but it still sounds really beautiful, and even if you get lost in the middle, you can just put your instrument down and listen, because you like it, I don't know.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

And do they get lost often?

LEJLA

Yes, they do, if the notes are hard or fast, or if others have a different theme and you listen to that theme and then get lost.

IVA

You look for your neighbour who has the same part, or at least, I don't know, a section that has a similar part, and then you can find your way back in. Otherwise the conductor pulls you through.

ŽIVA PLOJ PERŠUH (conductor)

For me, too, this is a great challenge and also a great responsibility, because if you promise a concert evening at the Ljubljana Festival, that is of course a big thing. It means I am constantly thinking on several levels – not only in the score, where you have to think about all the instruments involved, but also about all those who really are 12- and 13-year-olds, still essentially at the beginning of their musical journey. Yet every year we see again that even these, the very youngest, quite seriously rise to the greatest challenges and do their best to master what they can. So of course our programme is designed so that we can also arrange and simplify certain things and include them as much as possible. Nobody expects young soloists or young virtuosos to suddenly emerge here in three days, even when they work with mentors. But it is of course my task, and the task of everyone involved, including the older ones – a task called collegiality, tolerance and essentially a heartfelt invitation to everyone to take part. This is also the guiding principle for all the musicians in this orchestra: to accept absolutely everyone, including those at a lower level or of other nationalities. Perhaps they don't understand Slovenian, if they come from across the border and so on. Alongside the programme and all its technical demands, we very conscientiously cultivate social skills and humanity.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

At tomorrow's concert at Ljubljana's Križanke, the young people, forming a symphony orchestra, will take the audience into the world of cinema with film music, which young people already love so much – and everyone has their favourite.

INTERVIEWEE

I really, really love film music. My favourite is the soundtrack from the film How to Train Your Dragon.

JAKOB

Among the best film scores for me are Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean, which is really top.

JERRY

For me film music is good too; my favourite music is from Rocky and from Star Wars.

LEJLA

Harry Potter film music and Jurassic Park.

TIMOTEJ

The film music I like best is, say, from Kung Fu Panda, the cartoon, but sadly we're not playing it – though the ones we are playing are fine too.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

When the conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh was putting the programme together, she thought above all about unforgettable film melodies, or rather about films and themes that unite not only young people but also their parents.

ŽIVA PLOJ PERŠUH (conductor)

That is why the selection ranges from Monte video with music by Magnifico to Poletje v školjki and Čisto pravi gusar, as well as The Godfather and more – Tom and Jerry cartoons, for instance, by Scott Bradley. In short, a selection that I feel really connects a very broad spectrum of listeners. The young people's comment was, for example: why don't we play what we watch and know every day? But my answer, of course, is that everyone else plays that. Film music is such a popular concert format that of course many symphony orchestras, youth orchestras included, play it – but we have so many distinctive films and distinctive music. Marjan Kozina, too, and his Kekec, for example. In short, I wanted to showcase our very best things and set alongside them a Finnish composer who is something completely different. His concerto for symphony orchestra and electric bass guitar was written by Lauri Porra. He is the great-grandson of Jean Sibelius, which links us with the classical pole of performing this concerto. At the same time, Lauri is also a film composer, and his concerto, which is extremely demanding, sounds truly cinematic.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

The young musicians who will help create the evening of film music say they don't have stage fright, or at least less than, for example, before solo performances or exams. So what are their expectations ahead of tomorrow's concert?

TIMOTEJ

I already have three live concerts like this behind me, and I know she always pulls it off brilliantly and leads the orchestra right to the end.

INTERVIEWEE

I think the concert will be very good, and that even if something goes wrong, everything will be fine in the end.

INTERVIEWEE

I think it will be a success without any problem, because we have a conductor who is used to this and is really great.

INTERVIEWEE 2

I'm expecting lots of lovely moments on stage, smiles and a full Križanke.

VERONIKA GNEZDA (journalist)

The Slovenian Youth Orchestra's concert will therefore take place tomorrow at 20:30 at Ljubljana's Križanke as part of the Ljubljana Festival, and Marcel Štefančič will also be a guest on stage, presenting the concert. Apparently he himself came into the world of film precisely because of music and the orchestra. In any case, an interesting evening of film music is in store.