Māra Miķelsone’s Experience in Youth Symphony Orchestras: Highlights and Memories

Māra Miķelsone expresses her excitement about her experience in the youth symphony orchestras “Schleswig-Holstein Festivalorchester” and “Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester”: “I had the good fortune to play under the direction of Maris Jansson when I was 18 years old. We played Brahms’s Fourth Symphony and Mussorgsky’s “Exhibition Paintings” I still remember that special feeling when he came on stage at a rehearsal or concert, and we all loved him.

An orchestra is a single organism, and it is very sensitive to what is happening in front of it. That chemistry was there instantly. Those are some of my best memories.”

“With Claudio Abbado, we played “Parsifal” at the Edinburgh Opera House and Ravel’s Piano Concerto at the “Royal Albert Hall” with soloist Marta Argerich. There were moments when I sat on the stage and thought – this is probably the culmination of my orchestral career, even though I was only 20 years old,” he smiles violinist

“We had teachers who taught us during the preparation of the orchestra program. The second violin was a very nice Australian violinist, Stanley Dodds of the Berlin Philharmonic. He said: “Later in your career, when you’ve been around different orchestras around the world, you sometimes have a hard time and a lot of nostalgia after this time”.

How to maintain enthusiasm and love of music, so as not to get into a routine and regret that it will never be as good as it was?

He said: “Imagine that you have a little jewel box in your jacket pocket, and you put in it memories from, say, this summer, these concerts. Then when you feel sad and think that things are not so beautiful anymore, open them and smell them memories, may they give you strength and enthusiasm.” Of course, orchestra musicians often have a not-so-good conductor or a program that they don’t want to play. I listened to his words then,” says Māra Miķelsone.

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