About

Light Emerges

Spend a morning with us at FirstOntario Concert Hall and watch the HPO in rehearsal. This is a fantastic opportunity to give your students a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of professional orchestral life.

Enter through our stage door, and get a glimpse of backstage before joining us in a conference room to learn about what you are about to hear. Music Education manager, Megan Benjafield, will provide a brief introduction to the HPO and the concert program so that students know what to expect from the day’s rehearsal.

After learning about the pieces, schools are escorted to the first balcony where they have the opportunity to watch a rehearsal in progress from the best vantage point in the house. We have a microphone set up so that students hear the feedback the conductor is giving to the orchestra, and get an opportunity to see first-hand how that feedback then sounds in the orchestra.

Our rehearsal experiences are available on a first-come, first-served basis. We can accommodate a maximum of 50 students. Please click here to request your rehearsal experience.

This morning’s rehearsal features the overture from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, La forza del destino (The Power of Fate).  Like many great opera overtures, this piece is highlights the main leitmotif for the opera, and here it is the opening 3 unison note motif, which is known as the fate motif. This is a great opportunity to discuss opera and the role that Overture’s play to introduce audiences to the themes that will quickly become familiar in the opera. 
 
In addition, Mendelssohn’s 4th Symphony is on the rehearsal schedule. Often thought of as the composer’s most joyful symphony, students will delight in the high spirits this work has to offer. The symphony follows the common 4-movement symphonic format; Sonata Allegro, Andante, Minuet and Trio, Sonata Allegro. The thematic material for the Andante uses religious processionals that Mendelssohn witnessed in Italy as its inspiration and the 4th movement, uses a traditional Italian folk dance, the saltarello. 
 
The final piece covered during this rehearsal is Orawa for Strings, a work by modern Polish composer Wojciech Kilar. Kilar, like many modern composers, wrote for both stage and film. Having a modern work on the program offers teachers curricular connections that include contemporary careers in music and the different pathways that exist for musicians. In addition, the listening skills your students can gain by being exposed to new compositions cannot be underestimated. Often contemporary compositions include timbral experiments and modern compositional techniques that bring a whole new level of things to listen for to young musicians.


Please note: Our bookings are based on the planned rehearsal schedule. Students may not see all repertoire being rehearsed, and the repertoire is subject to change without notice.