A 21-year-old music student from Oyama has been invited to join the National Youth Orchestra of Canada—considered one of the top youth orchestras in the world.
Sam Kaplan is a graduate of George Elliot Secondary School, who has just completed his third year of post-secondary orchestra performance studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
The national youth symphony program is highly regarded as a “finishing school” for up and coming young musicians who are showing promise to go on and become professionals in their extremely competitive fields.
Many of the symphony alumni have gone on to careers in orchestras all over the world. One of several young Canadian musicians who auditioned, Kaplan is the only bass trombonist who received a scholarship to study and play with the NYOC this year.
On his music resume, Kaplan has previously played with the UBC Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and has substituted with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He has also played with several jazz bands in the Greater Vancouver area, and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.
A budding composer, Kaplan’s composition “Fantasia for Orchestra” was chosen to be performed this past April by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in the Jean Coulthard Readings.
While still in high school, every year his teacher Mr. Ryga would ask Kaplan to write pieces which were then performed by the senior concert band at the school’s winter and year-end band concerts.
This summer, the Youth Orchestra will be touring across Canada, with one of the concert stops in Kelowna. Symphony in the Sky will play at the Kelowna Mountain Bridges and Vineyards amphitheatre 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 8.
For tickets, check out the venue’s website www.kelownamountainbridges.com/concert-series, or search Eventbrite ticketing at www.eventbrite.ca.
Also, there are links to the “Inspired” TD Bank-sponsored national tour on the NYOC website, and there’s a Facebook NYOC page as well.