All for love: a new orchestra sets out

The UK's newest orchestra is off on its inaugural tour on 13 April. The Pro Youth Philharmonia is the brainchild of flautist and conductor Wissam Boustany and takes in a collection of emerging musicians in their twenties and early thirties. The method, says Boustany, is a bit unusual - see logo above. I asked him to tell us more...

JD: Why is the Pro Youth Philharmonia different from other youth orchestras? Please tell us about its USPs?

WB: We are not out to be different just for its own sake… but we have set ourselves up as a training/youth/professional orchestra for emerging musicians aged 22-32 and will tour approximately three times per year. There are some very fine training and youth orchestras around, of course, but we have pinpointed quite a wide definition of ‘youth’ and ‘’professional’ for ourselves, and central to our ethos is my ‘Method Called Love’, a distillation of 30 years of teaching and performance as a flute soloist. I believe that Love elevates any deed into a transformative experience - both in the way the deed is executed and in the way it is perceived - and this in not addressed enough in institutional education and in the profession. This is what is going to light up our music as well as our audiences hearts, as well as the educational outreach programme that we are in the process of activating. 

Simple, but powerful.      

As a flute soloist born in Lebanon, I will be bringing a special focus on Middle Eastern composers and soloists, over the next years. We are bombarded with some much negativity about that part of the world - I would like to facilitate inspired links and develop cultural ties that nurture talent and build opportunities, goodwill and trust between the UK and that part of the world.

JD: How and why did the idea for it emerge?

WB: In 2015 I was invited to conduct Poulenc’s Piano Concerto “Aubade” at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. This proved to be a transformative experience for me and my wife Shermine encouraged me to pursue conducting seriously. It is all in the breathing… I have a connection my breathing is at the root of my playing and will be the foundation of my conducting. I have been studying with the astonishingly gifted conductor George Pehlivanian in Madrid (how stimulating and refreshing it has been, to study again, at age 57!!). 

This new focus on conducting has also brought up such vivid memories from my days with Claudio Abbado and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Claudio’s approach, the combination of his his soft-spoken nature yet devastatingly powerful conducting have left a deep mark on me… and I believe the secret to Claudio’s success was in the way he chose to work with young people through the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; this is how he built up his approach and his repertoire, and how he was able to preserve and nurture his musical and human passion.     

JD: How have you gone about turning the idea into reality?

WB: The simple answer: where love lives, so does empowerment and the Will to overcome.

I was lucky enough to meet Derek Warby, who had worked with EUYO and other orchestras. His knowledge and pragmatism, passion for music, understanding of the orchestral scene and the inner workings of the music industry have been invaluable. He is spearheading our campaign, as PYP fast  approaches its inaugural tour, as our Head of Marketing and Strategy (besides a lot more).

I also met Mathilde Agoustari when I performed with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra several years ago, when she was in charge of their Public Relations… Mathilde has been really instrumental in spreading the word about PYP, as our Head of PR/Communications and Outreach. 

I have been overwhelmed by the goodwill shown by many friends, supporters and colleagues, when they heard about the orchestra and the motivation behind it. Our Trustees Hussein Dbouk and Aleksander Szram, as well as  Nicky Goulder (Create Arts) have been a great source of information, advice and encouragement.

JD: What’s been the most challenging thing about creating it?…

WB: When a project like this is being born from scratch, you have zero reputation, so the tendency is for people to wait and see the result (or whether the project will happen at all) before they commit to supporting you, financially or otherwise. The risks of starting a venture like are enormous - financially, emotionally and creatively; but I have always taught my students that you learn in direct proportion to the risks you are prepared to take; so I am humbly walking the talk. 

Luckily, Derek Warby is by my side and has a great overview of the logistical challenges that we face every step of the way; this has helped us stay on track. After this first tour, organising subsequent projects will be much easier.

  
JD:...And the most exciting and rewarding thing?

Boustany and furry friend

WB: I have single-handedly auditioned every single musician (69 players on this inaugural tour). The human dimension of music, after all the hard and often lonely work, is very rewarding. I have been particularly proud of the auditions, because they were designed to be as empowering and conducive to creativity as possible. Candidates chose their own repertoire and improvisation was one of the key determining factors in revealing the inner potential of the musicians. 

On a personal level, I feel that my whole body and brain are undergoing a fundamental rewiring… for 35 years I have been channelling my creativity into my flute - I am now expanding and using my body and mind in a different way, to connect with people and the great symphonic repertoire, after having vowed never to play in an orchestra again, when I stood down from Chamber Orchestra of Europe in the mid 80’s. This whole process has woken me up and I even hold my old friend, the flute, with renewed love. 

JD: How did you choose the programme for the inaugural tour? It’s wonderfully challenging.

WB: Derek and I consulted on this.

The first choice was the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra. What a feast of colour, folklore and internal revelations. Emerging from dark internal depths, Bartok reaches into the external world, putting expression to the 'people's voice', revealing so much colour, optimism, sensuality and humanity - not to mention the convulsions of Nature. And what brilliant orchestration, giving each individual instrument it's voice and character, while allowing a cohesive universality to take root. 

I also love the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 2 and am delighted that Stephanie Gonley will be our soloist… I am  seeing so many similarities with his great flute sonata. What an enigmatic combination of threat, wit, virtuosity, scintillating rhythm and utterly clever orchestration. He seems to know exactly what emotional symbolism each single instrument carries with it, which brings such colour and character to his music.

I was immediately fascinated with James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie when I heard it and thought it would balance well with the other works. MacMillan’s chosen theme of the witch-hunt, although relating to historic Scottish events, is something that I think is very relevant to our lives today, as there is always some sort of ongoing witch hunt happening in the media… it seems to be a national sport, to isolate and prey on people who don’t fit with the established and accepted norms of society.  

JD: Where will it go from here - and where would you like it to go eventually?

WB: I need to start reaching out to composers and soloists from the Middle East, and to approach the big movers and shakers to support these projects. 

I also look forward to planning our first full season of tours for  2019 and beyond. We are conceived as a touring orchestra, so I really want to develop these within the the UK and abroad. Once the next tours are set up, I will want to consolidate our educational outreach programme, so that our “Method Called Love” can run rampant among school children, while involving our PYP members in this important dimension of what the orchestra does. We plan to initiate Art & Poetry Competitions in school, so that schoolchildren can voice their feelings about the state of our world - these poems will be recited in our concerts and the paintings will become the artwork for our poster campaigns. 

JD: What is the message you want it to bring to us all?

May love prevail.

The Pro Youth Philharmonia's inaugural tour begins on 13 April at Cadogan Hall, London, then goes to the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford (14 April) and Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent (15 April). More details here.

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