One of the Highland Region's Young Ambassadors, Natalie Brayshaw, describes the first Young Ambassadors Forum and Lugansky Plays The Emperor, Sat 23rd Nov at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
On November 23rd, I travelled to Glasgow to meet with some of the other newly appointed Young Ambassadors for the RSNO. Having never encountered any of these people before (aside from having a nosey on Facebook!) I had no idea what to expect and was pretty nervous to meet them. But after all the introductions had taken place, I was just excited for us to get started.
We started by having our photograph taken in the concert hall itself, while the RSNO rehearsed behind us. I was struck by how odd it was to see them in casual clothes, not in the smart performance outfits I was used to. After several hushed photos, we headed back to the meeting room to come up with our first ideas.
In our groups, we came up with ideas such as making classical music more relatable to young people - for example by using classical music that has been made well known by films. We also discussed making it more accessible, by trying to change the perception of classical music as something only for older generations.
After this, we were given the opportunity to attend ‘Lugansky plays the Emperor’ conducted by Peter Oundjian. The concert opened with the RSNO’s enthralling performance of Messiaen’s ‘Les Offrandes Oubliées’ (which translates as the Forgotten Offerings), before Nikolai Lugansky was welcomed to play Piano Concerto No.5 (The Emperor). The atmosphere in the hall was breathtaking, and it was amazing to enjoy such music surrounded by other young people who all shared the same love for it. The final piece was Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, an interesting piece in which we heard prominent parts particularly from the brass. This was then followed by a wonderful encore of Brahms.
The music, meeting the other Young Ambassadors, and everything else about the evening was absolutely fantastic, and I can’t wait to meet the others and to continue working with this project.
Natalie Brayshaw
Natalie is part of the RSNO's Young Ambassador scheme, arranged by the Learning and Engagement Department. For more information, visit the RSNO website.
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