By Melanie Minty, arts columnist
SURREY —Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 14. It’s a big day for sales of cards and flowers.
Traditionally, Surrey Youth Orchestra has held a concert on Mother’s Day. This year is no exception. This outstanding collection of young musicians and their conductors present the final concert of the season on Sunday, May 14, starting at 7 p.m. at the Chandos Pattison Auditorium, 10238 168th St., Surrey. Scholarship awards will be presented to nine students on this evening. Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for seniors, students and alumni. Purchase tickets online at Surreysymphony.com or call 778-549-5515.
If you have never heard these young people play, you have definitely missed something great. It is serious music by serious young musicians. And all of them have mothers!
The Junior Strings are a lively group of the youngest players, and have been rehearsing under the baton of accomplished violinist, teacher and conductor Andrea Taylor. The group performs Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance #5” and Bach’s “Sinfonia.” The instruments and players may be small, but the music is big. Ben Goheen, who conducts the Intermediate Orchestra, is a busy teacher and performer. He will lead the Intermediates in Astor Piazolla’s “Spring,” from his vibrant work “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” and Haydn’s “Symphony No. 104.” Here is a bit of music history: This was Haydn’s final symphony and the last of the 12 “London Symphonies” he composed.
Every January, the Surrey Youth Orchestra has a concerto competition in which students can compete for an opportunity to perform solo with the orchestra. This year’s winner is 16-year-old oboist Bobby Zhang, from Surrey. He will perform Mozart’s “C Major Oboe Concerto.” Conductor Joel Stobbe directs the Youth Orchestra in one of classical music’s best known pieces, Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5.” Yes, you all know this music. It’s iconic.
Surrey Youth Orchestras had a humble beginning. In the early 1970s, at a time when there were few cultural organizations in the sleepy bedroom community, Lucille Lewis, a professional violinist and teacher, was inspired by her involvement in Surrey’s Cultural Fund Committee to found the Surrey Symphony Society and the Surrey Youth Orchestras. There were 17 members in that first effort. Now, hundreds of music students have taken part in the program, and the Surrey Symphony Society is truly an integral part of Surrey’s cultural fabric.
Although Lucille Lewis has retired from conducting, 40 years later, her daughter and celebrated fiddler, Andrea Taylor, leads the youngest players in the Junior Strings. Now that is a Mother’s Day story. Proud mom, for sure. Bobby Zhang’s mom is on the proud-mom list, too, I’m sure.
Bobby is both new to the orchestra and also to Canada. Bobby began piano lessons at the age of four, and by age nine he started playing the oboe. When he was in Grade 7, he joined the orchestra of Beijing 101 middle school. Invited by Consulate-General of the China in Sydney, Bobby participated in a special concert of “The Anniversary of Chinese National Day,” held at Sydney Opera House, on Oct. 1, 2013, with an orchestra. In February 2015, invited by Embassy of China in Sweden, he participated in a concert at the Noble Prize award ceremony in Stockholm. In August 2015, he recorded his first piano CD at a Beijing TV station. This year, he won the gold certification for ARCT piano at Fraser Valley Kiwanis Music Festival. And that’s what it takes to win a concerto competition with this amazing group.