Dacha Thurber Wins Concerto Competition
The haunting melody of Tzigane, Rapsodie de Concert echoes in the Bowld from upper Dacha Thurber’s violin. As Thurber draws his bow across the strings, the audience sits in awe of his emotional rendition of the song.
On Feb. 10, Exonians playing instruments ranging from the flute to the piano competed in the Academy’s annual concerto competition. Student musicians Penny Brant, Sophia Chang, Gordon Chi, Josephine Elting, Thomas Matheos, Kiesse Nanor, Nathan Sun and Dacha Thurber competed for the first-place award and the chance to perform their piece with the Exeter Symphony Orchestra in the spring concert. This year, violinist Thurber was awarded the honor Tzigane, Rapsodie de Concert by Maurice Ravel.
In order to keep the judging impartial, the music department selected a panel of professional musicians to choose the winner. Double-bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman of the New England Conservatory and low brass specialist Peter Cirelli, both accomplished musicians who have performed in various locations across the country, were selected to assess the Exeter musicians this year. “We wanted to make it completely fair, which is why we had distinguished artists as judges and a panel that represented the diversity of participating instruments,” said Rohan Smith, director of Exeter’s Symphony Orchestra.
The judges were amazed by the student musicians’ abilities to balance school and their commitment to practicing their instruments. “It was so impressive to see this level of commitment, musicality and love for music in school [because we] know that they are so busy with homework and extracurricular activities,” Delache-Feldman said.
While listening to the competitors, the judges assessed each piece on a specific set of criteria. “We looked for technique, musicality, expressiveness and understanding of the music: all of the things that make you excited [about music] and feel something special inside,” Delache-Feldman explained.
Although the panel presented the winning prize to two musicians last year, the music department decided to award only one student the honor of accompanying the orchestra this spring. “This way, we can be confident that we have a really fine performance from the orchestra. It is a tremendously interesting experience for the orchestra to play with the soloist, especially with one of their own peers,” said Smith. “We want them to make it as ‘top level’ a performance as possible.”
Thurber reflected on his choice of music. “Tzigane was written [by Ravel] to be the hardest piece for violin that had ever been composed. He wrote it in conjunction with his friend who was a violinist, who was concertmaster of the Paris Symphony,” Thurber explained. “It’s unusual for Ravel since he is known to be one of the biggest figures in 20th-century French music and ballet.”
Thurber was inspired to begin playing the violin after hearing a family friend from Serbia perform a concert at Phillips Church when he was three. While listening to him practice, Thurber instantly fell in love with the sound of the instrument. “At first, the way I was playing didn’t sound the way [my family friend] played the music, so I was a little discouraged…[but] my parents kept me going and I learned to enjoy it a lot,” said Thurber.
Upper Patricia Fitzgerald described how Thurber’s piece left a lasting impression on her because of the dramatic, complex solo at the beginning of the piece. “It captivated me because he was completely immersed in the music and the entire audience was fixated,” Fitzgerald commented.“His tone was deep and rich, but he also worked smoothly with the [accompanist on the] piano to change to spritely and mischievous.”
Smith was very impressed by Thurber’s performance and looks forward to listening to the orchestra play it alongside him this spring. “I think his performance really exemplified complete technical control, which gave him the ability to be really expressive...it was clear that he really had a vision of the piece,” said Smith. “It would be fabulous for the orchestra to learn this piece because it is so exotic. That will be a really challenging and interesting experience for the whole group.”