Langley musician tours with National Youth Orchestra
Local bassoonist Marc De Geus plays with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Now he is off to study music at UBC.
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Updated: August 18, 2009 4:17 PM
So what does it take to get into the National Youth Orchestra of Canada?
Marc De Geus, a young musician from Walnut Grove, can give you that answer.
He has just returned from Toronto this week after his second tour with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
This year NYOC made history by becoming the first Canadian youth orchestra to stream a concert live over the web.
They performed Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances, and Montreal’s Samy Moussa’s Cyclus at McGill University in Montreal. This recording can be viewed on the NYOC website at www.nyoc.org/stream. The orchestra of 106 members travelled to Ottawa, Kingston, Montreal, Mont Tremblant, London, Kitchener and Toronto.
This year Marc won the bassoon solo in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. This difficult passage starts off the performance.
So what does it take to get into the youth orchestra?
It starts with many hours of practice, an ability to focus and a strong audition in January. Then you wait until March to see whether you are successful.
But it doesn’t end there. Once you go to University of Waterloo, in London, Ont., you have to re-audition to determine whether you will play first, second or third chair for the different pieces of music.
Under the direction of very qualified faculty, three rehearsals a day and hours of practice it all comes together.
Now that the tour is completed, Marc will continue to study music at UBC with Jesse Read. He plays in the West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver. He teaches piano and bassoon, freelance piano, and bassoon in orchestras in the area. In his spare time he can be found running, swimming and hiking.
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