Surrey City Orchestra presents the Nutcracker this holiday season
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 19:19:48 +0000
When: Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Chandos Pattison Auditorium, 10238-168 St., Surrey
Tickets and info: From $25 at surreycityorchestra.org
The Surrey City Orchestra launched its inaugural season in September. Featuring musicians who call the city of Surrey home, the orchestra is led by music director and conductor Stuart Martin. A graduate of the University of B.C.’s music department who completed his Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 2017, Martin has an impressive resume.
He is particularly fond of opera and this June will be performing a selection of More Than a Queen, a new opera written by local composer Katya Pina and librettist Felicia Klingenberg.
But first up is the SCO’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet gem, The Nutcracker. This holiday-season favourite will include musicians, as well as additional dancers and vocal artists, from the Central Dance Academy, Ammara Dance Company, Hanyang Arts Society, the Kvitka Ukrainian School of Dance and the Surrey Children’s Choir. Looking ahead, the SCO hopes to keep bringing major classical works to the stage such as Holst’s the Planets, as well as producing concerts ranging from a best-of-Bollywood night to an evening with the Beatles tribute the Fab Fourever.
Martin took a moment away from rehearsals to talk to Postmedia News:
Postmedia: The Nutcracker is a seasonal favourite which can be presented in many different ways. It looks like you have quite a variety of additional performers joining in for this performance?
Stuart Martin: One of our mandates is to reflect the community that we live in, and reaching out to the various dance organizations in the region meant that we can reflect Surrey up on stage. The local groups were all really game and excited, and collaborating really well. The hope is that this won’t be a one-off, but rather go on to become an annual tradition as it is in so many communities.
Q: What does it mean to Surrey to have a professional orchestra?
A: Given the size of the city, it’s somewhat surprising that we didn’t have one already. Both Victoria and Kelowna are smaller cities than Surrey and have sustainable large orchestras. Surrey having one now makes the city more mature and culturally relevant, and it’s certainly time.
Q: Working multiculturally is going to give you unique opportunities in programming performances isn’t it?
A: Absolutely, and that is the plan down the line once we have got some money and bodies in seats from our capstone pieces like the Nutcracker. Then we can go out and start commissioning pieces, because it seems entirely unfair to someone to put their heart and soul into a work of art and not be properly recompensed. So we are actively seeking grants and donors in order to do unique original projects.
Q: Is there a goal in mind in terms of how many shows you would like to put on in a year?
A: Realistically, we would love to have five to 10 shows a year. At the moment, we are doing one to four without having a charitable status or large donors and squeezing every penny we can of ticket sales. But we recently received our charitable status and are accepting donations, seeking sponsorships and it feels like a pretty good place at the moment.
Q: This sounds like a lot more than just deciding on what piece to perform and commanding the baton?
A: As a young conductor, I am usually called in to work with firmly established orchestras who have already gone through these building blocks. But I did run my own opera company in Montreal, which gave me a head start with all of this. It’s definitely been a big learning curve, but it’s also an invaluable experience. All the projects we have down the pipe are going to be engaging, colourful and memorable for a Surrey audience.