Young violinist performs with best of the best
Teenage violinist Rachel Twyman didn’t hold out much hope of being selected for the NZSO National Youth Orchestra – but she auditioned any way.
The 17-year-old is over the moon to be one of the few high school students to be selected to play alongside the most gifted musicians from universities, music schools and tertiary institutions around the country.
This month she has taken part in intensive rehearsals and will perform Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony and Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto in concerts in Auckland and Wellington.
Rachel picked up violin aged 4, and hardly put it down.
The Diocesan School student loves performing and says the violin is a way to express herself.
‘‘I’m not that great at talking about feelings and stuff but I love having everyone’s attention when I’m performing and being able to take them on a journey,’’ she says.
‘‘The violin is the has
really expressive and it can play a wide range of genres, so I play a lot of baroque and classical and romantic music. It’s got a huge facility as well – there’s so many different techniques involved and there’s so much violin repertoire and some of it’s just amazing.’’
One of her favourites is the second movement of the Bruch Violin Concerto.
‘‘There’s so much emotion packed into that one movement,’’ Rachel says. ‘‘It’s got tragedy, it’s got a kind of mournfulness and it’s also got some celebration, but it’s just a beautiful movement and I love playing and performing it.’’