After months of rehearsals, the time has finally come: New Talent Orchestra will perform. The special thing about this orchestra is that it consists of musicians who have no experience. Over the past ten weeks, they’ve been meeting to practice together, mastering the instruments and, more importantly, trying to get a decent tone out of them. That didn’t go so well in the beginning.
Now, ten weeks later, the 45 orchestra members are ready for their first concert. Beforehand, there is a lot of practice in the De Trefkoel village hall in Gasselte. Trumpets, flutes, trombones and saxophones are blown warmly and the timpani are tuned.
Initiator Jos van der Sijde is extremely proud of his people. “It’s going beyond expectations. People are extremely enthusiastic. Adults are going even harder than young people. Everyone has studied very fanatically and they should above all be proud of themselves.”
New Talent Orchestra is an idea of Annewiep Bloem and Guus Pieksma. The Frisians want to introduce ‘older youth’ to music in this way. “Children are motivated to take lessons, but adults are less likely to start music on their own. Here you muddle around together and that creates fraternization,” says Bloem. “We want to ensure that the musicians come in with a smile and go home with a smile. That works,” Pieksma concludes.
With the nice side effect that the four music associations in the municipality of Aa and Hunze may gain more members. Because like many associations, music is also struggling with a declining number of members. The project is successful, because no fewer than thirty of the forty-five participants subsequently move on to another orchestra. “We call that NTO 2.0. Then we rehearse ten times, but spread over two weeks. So they will have to practice more at home. We also advise people to take lessons. Most of them will do that.”
This means that a youth department is in the pipeline for the music associations in Aa and Hunze for the ‘older youth’. “The difference is that young people must first have years of lessons before they can join an orchestra. We turn it around. Adults can absorb the information more quickly and therefore progress more quickly,” says Van der Sijde.
The first concert tonight is completely sold out, no one can attend anymore. One of the visitors is mayor Anno Wietze Hiemstra of the municipality of Aa en Hunze. Can the new musicians perform under pressure? “I’m not worried about that,” says trombonist Frans Krans. “I’m looking forward to it and above all I feel healthy tension.” Moreover, Krans is convinced of the quality of the special orchestra. “Andre Rieu is nothing,” he smiles.