Performing a solo during the world premiere of a brand new piece of music would be a nerve-racking thing to do.
This was the experience freelance percussionist and music educator Victoria Sparks went through when the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra asked her to play a solo on marimba and vibraphone for Sid Robinovitch’s “Concerto for Percussion and Strings.”
Sparks’ journey is chronicled in the documentary film Concerto, directed to Ivan Hughes. The film first premiered on MTS Stories From Home and just had its public release in Winnipeg earlier this month.
The film tells the story of Sparks’ first, and so far only time preparing to perform in a professional concerto with a large orchestra. This experience already posed a daunting challenge. In the midst of all this, Sparks experiences a personal tragedy.
She eventually discovered that having this intensive work to focus on helped her cope and it became a welcome distraction.
“Finding something that needed this much attention allowed me to take breaks from being sad, which I realize sounds weird to say,” said Sparks. “This was a very difficult thing to do but I’m very thankful I had this big challenge to give myself a break from everything that happened.”
“You just have to put your head in the sand and work.”
Sparks had just less than three months to prepare for the concert and admits when it came time to perform her solo, she was nervous.
“I was tensing up my arms and tearing the skin off of my fingers because I was gripping the sticks so tight,” she said with a laugh. “I looked down after I was done and saw that my fingers were bleeding because I was gripping the sticks so tight, which is terrible because I always yell at my students for doing that.”
Hughes was with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra filming performances for archival purposes. He says he admired the fact that many of the members had day jobs and other things going on in their lives while they were learning how to play these complicated pieces for the orchestra and performing live.
“She (Victoria) was quite remarkable,” said Hughes. “It was a tough time for her to get through and it just shows me the amount of resilience and dedication and focus that a musician of her caliber has to have to succeed in that industry.”
Sparks says having the film crew follow her around was a good experience. It allowed her to process the feelings and thoughts going through her mind as she was preparing for this big career event.
“It was really interesting to have time to reflect on those things while I’m going through the process and it was cool having someone there asking me, ‘So how’s it going? What are you thinking about now? What is worrying you? What’s stressing you out?’” she said. “Unless you’re constantly journaling you don’t really do that kind of constant reflection.”
Concerto had its public premier on Feb. 16, 2017 at Cinematheque. If you want to watch the film you can watch it on MTS On Demand. Hughes says his website will also have it available on demand in the near future.
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