The Hoosier Youth Philharmonic Orchestra won first place in the High School String Orchestra AA category at last month’s Festivals of Music competition in Chicago. 68 musicians from Bloomington High School North and South participated. It competed in the AA category, the toughest one.
“We had to play some difficult music,” said Orchestra Director Joshua Balogh. “And from that, it was also just finding our strengths and weaknesses and trying to play towards the strengths. And then just finding like a program that fit together, so different stylistic pieces and things like that.”
Balogh settled on “The Death of Ase” by Edvard Grieg, “Allegro Moderato from Symphony No. 29 in A Major” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “Suite for Strings” by John Rutter. They have practiced since February for the competition.
“We worked on it in class, and we used student leadership to help prepare the material, so section leaders teaching students,” Balogh said. “It's just a really great leadership opportunity for our students, so that they're not only learning how to play an instrument, but how to work together, how to problem solve.”
Jonathan Massey, a senior at Bloomington South, plays the violin. In rehearsals, they focused on understanding the goal of the composer and what the music should sound like. One challenge Massey faced was training the high number of underclassmen.
“They're all skillful, but they all haven't played in an orchestra of 100 people,” he said, “so I think kind of helping them get to that level of playing in a large orchestra, was definitely really difficult.”
When performing “The Death of Ase,” Massey said he focused on playing with emotion, drawing out each note and adding vibrato. Dynamics were also key.
“A lot of dynamics is really the biggest thing, accentuating the parts that are supposed to be the most emotional, the most loud, and then kind of pulling back, and the contrast is what creates the emotion,” he said.
The orchestra was judged on balance, blend, cohesiveness, tone and note accuracy. Balogh thinks their cohesiveness as a group helped them stand out.
“You got to listen to others,” he said. “Sometimes, you got to play less so that other people have their time to shine, and other times, you get to step forward and have your moment. And it's all about that teamwork and collaboration.”
The orchestra also received a gold ranking from the Indiana State School Music Association.
Balogh said he’s proud of what the students accomplished this year and is looking forward to next year’s competitions.
“Seeing the students put all this hard work and effort and seeing it pay off in the end is super important,” he said. “And for the students to go out and travel across state lines and get this victory, I think it's a testament to how hard they're working and how they've had just a really open mind this entire year. So, I couldn't be happier.”
