The Score | Utah-Haiti Connections

In March, a group of Utah Symphony musicians, plus Music Director Thierry Fischer, traveled to Haiti to participate in the weeklong National Orchestra Institute. It is the second year of the project, which took place in Cap Haitien, in northern Haiti. Musicians raised funds to pay their own expenses, and the initiative is a partnership with a nonprofit called Building Leaders Using Music Education (BLUME Haiti). The first NOI in March 2017—which concluded with performances by Haitian musicians of movements from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony, Bizet’s Carmen, and Grieg’s Peer Gynt—got a “wildly positive” response from students, wrote Utah Symphony violinist Yuki MacQueen recently in MusicalAmerica.com. MacQueen’s in-depth Musical America report noted that many of the Haitian students are themselves teachers at their own schools, and that their instruments are “woefully substandard.” During breaks from sectionals, MacQueen wrote, “students would spontaneously break out into jam sessions of pieces from the Suzuki violin method, Haitian folk songs, or even pop music.” The Utah Symphony group brought along luthier John Paul Lucas and bow maker Evan Orman to teach all-important instrument repair skills. Scott Harrison, executive director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, flew down to teach a music management seminar. At the Utah Symphony musicians’ Facebook page, photos from the institute documented that many daytime rehearsals and coachings were held outdoors—indoor lighting and electricity can be scarce commodities in Haiti. The week concluded with an orchestra of 95 student musicians performing Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, which reportedly received a foot-stomping standing ovation.