Bring the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra to Europe

Bring the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra to Europe

The Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra, composed of 36 musicians between the ages of 9 and 21, has bagged an opportunity to compete in the 11^th Summa Cum laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria from July 7 to 11, 2017.

The children have also been invited to play in concert venues in Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Prague.

While the trip would be a great experience for the kids, the costs of travel are prohibitive. Many of the musicians come from middle-income families who do not have additional funds for the European travel.

This campaign seeks to raise P2.5 Million Pesos to help the talented, hardworking and deserving members of the MSJO join the tour.

Background

The Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra was organized in 2014 as the youth orchestra development program of the MSO Foundation, Inc. and is aimed to gather the best of the country’s young string musicians and equip them with the knowledge and experience of orchestral literature of various styles and genres.

Today there are 35 members playing string instruments: violin, viola and the cello. The children regularly rehearse at the space near the MSO Academy branch in Glorietta, Makati City. They made a debut at the Cultural Center of the Philippines – Strings Like Teen Spirit – in November 2016 and performed a series of mall shows that Christmas season. They also regularly play at Concert at the Park.

In their performances, the children delight their audience wth a mix of classical pieces, original Pilipino music and even arrangements of modern rock and pop songs.

The 2017 trip

The Summa Cum Laude Festival is one of the most prestigious youth music festivals in the world. It will be held at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. Competing groups – among them youth orchestras from Austria, Germany, China, United States, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Spain, and Italy, will be asked to play from among a list of pre-selected pieces that would show their skill and technique.

The trip will also take the children on prominent concert venues, the Sound of Music tour, and tutorials and workshops by the best music teachers of the region.

Why we must help the MSJO

The children are talented and hardworking and thus deserving of our support. MSJO members practice and perform their music on top of their regular schoolwork. They sacrifice playtime, social lives and other aspects of being a teenager. They rehearse for a fixed time on their own every day, and with the group every weekend.

The trip will inspire them to develop their passion for music. Competing with other youth orchestras from all over the world will instill in the MSJO members pride of and dedication to their music. The tours will heighten their desire to improve themselves – to do better and be better musicians.

They have no other means to raise the funds. Members of the MSJO come from lower-income or middle income families who, while able to provide for their basic needs, have no other means to fund a substantive additional expense such as the European trip.

The MSJO will be conducting a series of fundraising performances. It is also talking to potential institutional and individual sponsors. Thus far, however, the amount that needs to be raised, covering the children’s tour package and airfare, is still not enough.

Doing so would send a strong message about how music feeds the soul – and how we best develop our children. The children will represent the Philippines in an international festival. This is a source of pride for the entire country. Supporting the MSJO will send the message that we know where our priorities lie, and that is helping our children achieve their fullest potential and using music to unite and inspire us as a nation.