25 YEARS - A WHOLE GENERATION OF HARMONY
The BlueScope Steel Youth Orchestra celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a concert at Wollongong Town Hall on Friday 16 September, 2011. Click here for more information.
Present Day:
Of all the ways in which commerce and art can collide and collude, the nurturing of the dreams of youth must surely be among the most worthy.
Such has been the essence of the enduring relationship between BlueScope Steel and the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music – two seemingly unrelated bodies mutually bound for a quarter of a century through the BlueScope Steel Youth Orchestra - in pursuit not only of giving (mainly) teenagers something worthwhile to do, but of all-round excellence. It has attracted the expertise of specialist teachers. It has created employment. It has brought a dynamic perspective to the Conservatorium’s work and has enriched the cultural fabric not only of Wollongong but NSW, Australia and other countries.
 Andrew Snell, CEO of the Conservatorium for the past three years, marvels at the longevity of the relationship.
“This is a fabulous achievement for both the Conservatorium and BlueScope,’’ he said. “This length of sponsorship simply doesn’t exist in the arts, not only in Australia, but internationally. To put it in context, Visa has sponsored the Olympics for 25 years!”
“This sponsorship has enabled the Conservatorium to offer a unique youth orchestra program in regional Australia. It means we’ve been able to offer a team of specialist tutors to work with the students on a weekly basis, we’ve been able to offer hundreds of scholarships to assist the development of players and we’ve had countless new Australian works written for the orchestra to perform.”
“BlueScope Steel is the perfect sponsor. They’re supportive and always engaged with the students and the Conservatorium, but not in any way demanding or interfering. They trust that the Conservatorium staff will always do their best for the students, and they allow us to do just that.”
“There are very few regional youth orchestras in Australia that can claim the success rate of the BlueScope Steel Youth Orchestra. We have a large number of former players who have gone on to a career in music, including Nick Russoniello, who just this week won the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award, Australia’s premier classical music award. Many former players play professionally, some teach and some work in music administration, but all leave with a profound, life-long love of music.”
History:
James Powell, founding Principal of the Conservatorium and its leader at the time the sponsorship began, has had the box-seat to witness the journey of its development.
“It’s been my pleasure to sit back and watch them work and develop over time,” he said. “I’ve had most joy out of seeing the less usual instruments take their place. The Illawarra always had its violinists, its pianists, but you need that extra brass and wind component to give an orchestra real tone and texture.”
He said that without the sponsorship, progress of the Conservatorium’s budding musical student body “wouldn’t be placed above zero”.
“At the time, BHP were reticent to even have their name in the orchestra’s title, but I assured them it was more than fitting in terms of them getting exposure,” he said. “The level of support they have shown … it’s a bit beyond my imagination. I can only commend them.”
In 1986, the Conservatorium had an excellent string program, and it seemed logical to expand the orchestral program out to a full “Symphony Training Orchestra”, as the group was known until the early 1990s. Bev Brownlee, mother of the one of the viola-playing students, had an idea to complete a submission to the then BHP’s community donations program to fund the purchase of new instruments and pay for tutors and scholarships.
BHP took up the opportunity, breaking the mould from sponsoring purely sporting endeavours. In 1986 their first sponsorship money was used to purchase a french horn, trombone, bassoon and oboe. Scholarships were also set up for students to get tuition on these instruments, paying fees of the instrumental tutors.
David Vance was appointed as the first conductor of the Symphony Training Orchestra in 1989, and he remained until the end of 1995 when he left to undertake a conducting study tour of Italy.
Current conductor Nigel Edwards, who directed the BHP Wind Ensemble (1987-1996) as it existed alongside the full Symphony Training Orchestra (both funded by BHP) was appointed resident conductor in 1996. He has seen the program grow to promote musical appreciation for both players and audiences.
“That has been one of the very important things to me – that there has been exposure to different styles of music,” he said. “It has helped to make me better at what I do, and it gets me outside of the day-to-day teaching routines.”
The orchestra was initially managed by Merill Powell, until Penelope Chapple took over (1993-1995). In 1995 Penelope Chapple, the then Principal of the Conservatorium, appointed Tanya Phillips as Orchestra Manager. Tanya was a cellist in the orchestra and became the cello tutor for the section before picking up the reins as Orchestra Manager, which she still does to this day.
At the end of 1995, the original players were in their 20s, and many had not left. The standard of repertoire excluded the school-age population of young musicians, and it became clear that most of them would never reach a level on their respective instruments high enough to join the orchestra before leaving school.
At this stage, Tanya and Nigel decided to amalgamate the Conservatorium's intermediate string ensemble and the BHP Steel Wind Ensemble into a new, younger orchestra. This decision immediately doubled the size of the ensemble, meant a steady stream of school-aged students would be continually available to join the orchestra at a lower level of musical expertise, and enabled the group to play a wider selection of repertoire.
The orchestra was re-launched, attracting a lot of publicity, and even a documentary about the orchestra touring NSW on board the historic 3801 steam locomotive. This was the start of a new phase of the orchestra program - the annual tour.
In 2003 the orchestra name changed to the BlueScope Steel Youth Orchestra (BSYO).
 Tours:
Although this sponsorship has enabled the Conservatorium to provide a team of specialist tutors to work with the BSYO students on a weekly basis, and provide hundreds of scholarships to assist the development of these players, the money is in no way connected with one of the orchestra’s raisons d’etre – their much-anticipated tours. It must therefore be acknowledged here that these tours could not go ahead without the support of the dedicated staff, students and their parents. The fundraising effort alone requires an extra level of commitment, on top of the additional rehearsal time not to mention the logistics that go into preparing the orchestra for a tour.
“The kids live for the trips,’’ says Tanya Phillips. “They ask every day ‘where are we going next?’ Whether it’s a bus-trip to Sydney or a 747 to Paris, the tours are a literal reminder of the metaphor that music and all it involves can indeed take you somewhere.
The orchestra has undertaken annual tours to provide orchestra members with a broad range of performance chances. Tours have been through five states of Australia and a territory. There have also been trips to New Zealand, Indonesia, Spain, France and Germany.
In 2005, the orchestra undertook a ground-breaking trip to Indonesia at the invitation of Sultan Hamenkubuwono X of Yogyakarta, performing at the royal palace in two concerts to raise money for young students in that city whose families died, leaving them orphans as a results of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The concert (Gita Swarasisya Buana, meaning “song of the students’ voices among nations”) was broadcast twice on free-to-air TV to audiences of more than 60 million viewers.
The BSYO were joined in a collaboration by 20 top gamelan players, Indonesia’s leading flautist Nano Tirto, the University Gajah Mada Students’ Choir, as well as two of the country’s leading pop singers.
In 2008, the BSYO went to Spain in their first European concert tour, performing for hundreds of schoolchildren during Youth Week in the 13th century Romanesque Church of Saint Bias. A second concert was held in the Chapel of the famous Parador at Santiago de Compostela built in 1499.
One of the most exciting concerts was held in the Prince Felipe Auditorium Oviedo. The Oviedo String Orchestra and choir hosted the joint concert, which presented the Spanish premiere of Himno Jubileo. The final concert of this tour was performed in the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
In April 2010, the orchestra performed in the Madeleine Church in the heart of Paris, the Darmstadt Music Academy in Germany and in the ornate town hall in Nancy, France.
Awards:
The BSYO has won two National Orchestra awards. For its activities during 2005, it received the prestigious National Youth Orchestra Award for “extending the public’s perceptions of youth orchestras”. It was a first for a regional youth orchestra. In 2003, BSYO had earned an honourable mention and certificate in the same category for its 2002 agenda.
BlueScope Steel has also been acknowledged. It received two National Enlightened Support Awards from The Orchestras of Australia Network for 15 years’ continuous sponsorship (2001) and 20 years’ continuous sponsorship (2006).
Community Support:
The BSYO is an integral part of their community, performing at regular events such as Seniors Week, Youth Week, festivals such as Viva La Gong and the Illawarra Folk Festival, and numerous charity concerts. The orchestra also regularly performs for other regional musical societies, such as Berry, Gerringong and the Illawarra Choral Society, performs in joint concerts with other orchestras, choirs, and bands, as well as collaborates for workshops and concerts with recognised national organisations such as the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and the Australian String Teacher’s Association.
The BSYO has made an impact on orchestral culture in Australia by embracing the vision of Professor Kim Walker, Dean of Sydney Conservatorium of Music, who said orchestras should change from having “the culture from an internally focused organisation to one that is externally engaged and embraces all our publics”.
BSYO’s performances have allowed the public to see the orchestra as a positive force, playing an important role in our society and capable of giving back to the community. The BSYO has raised money for the Sultan’s Foundation in Indonesia, the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission in India, the Salvation Army, the Quest for Life Foundation in NSW, Rural Youth and breast cancer initiatives. It has also donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres since 2009.
The orchestra also performs for visiting national and international dignitaries to Wollongong and has hosted visiting international groups such as the Danish National Youth Orchestra, the New York Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, the Cincinnati Strings and the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony.
Wollongong City Council has held numerous lord mayoral receptions to honour the achievements of the orchestra, which has the full support of the University of Wollongong and the business and arts communities.
“We’re thrilled to have been associated with the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music’s youth orchestra for the past 25-years,’’ a BlueScope spokesperson said. “The orchestra has, and continues to play, a vital role in the personal development of hundreds of young people in the Illawarra. All past and present members, not forgetting the dedicated Conservatorium staff, should be extremely proud of their achievements with the orchestra and we look forward to joining them at their celebratory concert on the 16 September.”
So while it seems any commercial company can throw money to an arts body to buy things and pay talent, there is so much more in this case …
Simply, BlueScope could have opted to go down the red-carpet route, seeking the glamour and prestige of, for example, naming rights for the Sydney Opera House. But it does not put its money that way. For 25 years, part of its community-support money has gone instead to, among other things, helping teenagers from one of Australia’s great blue-collar cities not only get to grips with classical musical instruments, but also grow through teamwork and camaraderie, learning valuable life lessons along the way.
“None of our kids have ever ended up on the dole,” says Tanya Phillips of the roughly 300 players who have performed with the orchestra. They have gone on to a diverse and broad range of professions – musical and otherwise – and have taken up community positions in voluntary capacities.
“BlueScope know they are sponsoring the arts with us, but also the value of education – there is some really good role-modelling going on,” she says, referring to the lessons the orchestra learns from playing its many charity events over the years. It all, she says, goes towards constituting the betterment of society.
“The fact that we exist gives kids something  to aspire to.”
Two (of Many) Success Stories:
BSYO woodwind tutor Tony Grimm has had a unique view of the 25-year relationship, having been one of the first students to take up a BSYO scholarship (on bassoon). Having received his Bachelor in Music degree, and now studying for his Masters, Tony has gone on to play with at least five major Australian orchestras and continues to lend a wealth of experience to today's BSYO players, coming to practice weekly by train from Sydney and going on all tours.
Former BSYO member, Nick Russoniello, has just been awarded one of the highest awards for young musicians…the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer Award. Nick was born and raised in Wollongong where he studied at Wollongong Conservatorium of Music with Nigel Edwards (Head of Woodwind) and attended Wollongong High School for the Performing Arts. He has since gone on to study at Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Conservatorio di Musica Di Milano in Italy, and now performs as a soloist and with the ensembles Continuum Sax, The Sax Summit, and Duo Histoire.
Of all the ways in which commerce and art can collide and collude, the nurturing of the dreams of youth must surely be among the most worthy.
 The BlueScope Steel Youth Orchestra is run by Wollongong Conservatorium of Music, supported by BlueScope Steel
Updated September 2011
For further information please contact:
Lindsay Snell, Marketing Communications Coordinator
Wollongong Conservatorium of Music
0431 145 094
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