‘A real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’: Spokane Youth Symphony Orchestra performs at Sydney Opera House

For many musicians, playing at the Sydney Opera House is a lifelong dream.

For the Spokane Youth Symphony Orchestra, that dream has been realized.

The orchestra, which consists of teenage musicians from the greater Spokane area, recently returned from a trip to Australia. On the trip, they explored the city, met other musicians and performed in the Opera House.

“It was absolutely incredible,” said Dr. Roberta Bottelli, conductor of the Spokane Youth Philharmonic. “A real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for sure.”

At the Opera House, the musicians performed “Down a Country Lane” and “Old American Songs” by Aaron Copland, “A Night in Lisbon” by Camille Saint-Saëns, and segments from Serenade Op. 11 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms and Symphony No. 82 “The Bear” by Joseph Haydn.

“The sound was very clear and resonant, and I just thought it was amazing to play in the Sydney Opera House,” said Alexander Newcombe, a bassist in the Youth Symphony Orchestra and a student at Ridgeline High School. Newcombe mentioned the Opera House as his favorite part of the trip.

Outside of the Opera House, the musicians kept busy immersing themselves in the culture of Sydney. They visited museums, churches, botanical gardens, a farm and the Taronga Zoo.

“They didn’t have a lot of free time, but when they did, most of them chose to spend that time doing something to take in the experience of Sydney as a city and Australia as a country,” said Sarah Palmer, photographer and videographer of the Australia tour.

The musicians also met and performed with other orchestras. At their performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, they shared the program with the Northern Sydney Youth Orchestra, Sunshine Philharmonic Orchestra and Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies. GTCYS also joined the orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.

“It was really, really cool to see that global community make music together,” Palmer said.

After their performances, some members of the group traveled to Cairns, Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef.

“That was a really exciting opportunity to … see some of the natural beauty of the landscape in Australia,” Bottelli said.

The trip was motivated by the orchestra’s visit to a youth symphony in Colorado Springs, which had a highly organized touring program. This program inspired Philip Baldwin, artistic director and conductor of the Spokane Youth Symphony Orchestra, to schedule the tour.

Directors at the Youth Symphony considered several options but ultimately decided on Sydney because of the opportunity to play at the Opera House.

“There were many options for places to go, but it was very difficult to turn down the opportunity to perform at the Sydney Opera House,” said Pia Hallenberg, development and marketing manager for the Youth Symphony.

While donors provided some money for the trip, the musicians and their families raised the vast majority of the money themselves.

“It’s not like we just wrote a giant check and sent everybody overseas,” Hallenberg laughed. “It doesn’t work like that.”

Around 50 students and 50 chaperones went on the trip. It was a difficult process to coordinate the tour, Bottelli said, but support from families and the Board of Directors was helpful.

The trip itself went smoothly. Bottelli credits the musicians’ maturity for making the traveling easy despite the long flights and layovers.

Even with the costs and length of travel, the musicians and directors agreed that the trip was a highly positive experience.

“It was totally worth it,” Newcombe said.

The Youth Symphony hopes to make tours such as this one a regular thing in the future.

“We’re gonna see if we can pull off a bigger trip, like, every other year,” Hallenberg said.

Bottelli mentioned connections between cultures as a highlight of the trip.

“I’m so glad that our students had the opportunity to experience another culture and share their wonderful music with another audience,” she said.