Boston Herald
Friday, January 30, 2015
By Jed Gottlieb
With
63 years of experience, violinist Judith Takata can’t be called a
beginner, novice or neophyte. The labels don’t fit Kushi Sellahennedige,
either, who took up the instrument at age 10. Tomorrow, Symphony Hall
will be full of such talented musicians, and yet no one in the orchestra
will qualify as a professional. More than 100 skilled amateur
Massachusetts musicians will take the stage to perform at the Boston
Symphony Orchestra’s education and community engagement department’s
first “Onstage at Symphony” event.
“Last month, I took a free tour
of Symphony Hall, and they let us go anywhere in the hall but onstage.”
Takata, 73, said. “Now I get to sit on that stage, to play on a stage
I’ve admired for so long.”
The BSO selected the ad hoc ensemble of
locals for the one-time performance through a lottery system.
Presumably every applicant has chops — both Takata and Sellahennedige
considered careers in music following high school graduation — but there
could be wide gaps between the top and bottom players.
“I don’t
know what to expect,” said Sellahennedige, who works as a mechanical
engineer. “At least for a few minutes, we’ll be a whole group of
strangers, strangers with very different backgrounds and skills.”
BSO’s
Youth and Family Concerts conductor Thomas Wilkins, who will spend the
next 24 hours whipping the group into shape, has never led an ensemble
like this, but he’s not worried. He says the experience won’t be much
different than putting a professional orchestra together for the first
time.
“I just did a set of concerts in Barbados with members of
the Met, the BSO and other orchestras, and most of the musicians had
never played together, but it worked,” Wilkins said. “Granted, the
musicians were on another level from the community orchestra we put
together. But they’re always at different levels. You get average
players and unbelievable players in any group.”
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