“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”
Ever wondered what it’s like to be a part of a world class orchestra? Victoria Irish, a 1st violinist with the Philharmonia, offers us some insights and gives sound advice to young musicians.
This week we speak with Victoria Irish, an accomplished soloist, duettist, chamber and orchestral violinist who has been a 1st violin member of the Philharmonia Orchestra since 2004.
Victoria started playing the violin at the age of eight and went on to study privately with Sophie Langdon before attending the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied with Detlef Hahn and Yfrah Neaman. Victoria was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and also a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and strongly believes in education of all the arts subjects.
We ask Victoria about her earliest musical experience, what it’s like to be a member of the Philharmonia, and ask for her advice for young musicians who dream of also being a part of an orchestra someday.
What was one of your earliest musical experiences?
My earliest memory is my Aunt listening to Sweet Talkin’ Woman by the Electric Light Orchestra when I was about three — I thought the string sound at the beginning was amazing! I never forgot it and always hoped to be a member one day. I ended up joining the Philharmonia instead, but I understand that there are revivals going on so who knows?! I started playing the violin when I was eight and that was around the same time I bought a tape (you could get them back then!) with my pocket money. It had the Mendelssohn violin concerto on one side and the Tchaikovsky on the other. Having played every violin part of both those concertos since, I still get them mixed up when I hear an excerpt out of context as I used to listen to them both on loop!
I also went on my very first orchestral training weekend when I was nine and I thought that there was a boy called Tutti in the orchestra! He kept getting yelled at, so he can’t have been very good!
What inspired you to dedicate your life to music?
Well, if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. I always enjoyed improving and wanted to end up doing good work. I hope I am still improving — I’m certainly still learning! I’ve always enjoyed the discipline of playing in a section. It also helped that I have very supportive parents both emotionally and financially.
What have been some of your favourite pieces to play with the Philharmonia?
A long time ago when I was on trial we played Michael Tippett’s Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli and also later that year we performed the Concerto for Double String Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival! I loved every moment and often listen to these works in my kitchen when I am cooking or loading the dishwasher.
Anything by Vaughan Williams - I am a member of the Vaughan Williams Society and very proud to be so! Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis if I had to choose one. I have wonderful memories of performing all of the symphonies and also The Pilgrim’s Progress back in 2008 with Richard Hickox who is another example of a terrible loss not only to music but particularly the English music scene.
Anything by Mahler! I love Mahler. I have enjoyed every Mahler cycle we have ever done.
Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is one of the most exciting 1st fiddle parts I have every played. Prokofiev’s classical symphonies are always stressful but satisfying!
We performed Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde a few years ago with Esa-Pekka Salonen who didn’t disappoint. It was an incredible production and the music was breathtaking.
Thanks to Jakub Hruša I have been introduced to the symphonic works of Joseph Suk. The Asrael Symphony was a great discovery to me as was the Fantastic Scherzo which is beautiful and charming.
Finally, Bruckner’s Eighth - I have an almost religious respect for all Bruckner but the 8th symphony is the king in my mind!
What have been some of the highlights of being part of one of the world’s best orchestras?
The first highlight was actually being offered my job — I couldn’t believe it! I’d all but given up as the trial was taking forever, so being made to feel a part of it all was definitely the biggest highlight.
Other than that, there are new highs that occur weekly. The symphonic repertoire is so vast and in an orchestra like the Philharmonia we get such a varied mix and can stand back and see the evolution of composition from Beethoven’s influences, expanded instrumentation through the romantic period, the French impressionists and finally the modern day. I’m simplifying it, but you can see a path. I find it fascinating and I’m always happy to discover new works!
Working with Esa-Pekka Salonen is always a highlight as he is the master of imaginative programming. There is never a dull moment and his genius for the big programmatic works is astounding (You can listen to the Philharmonia under Salonen’s baton here). He has such an organised mind and you can tell that he can already see and hear the end product even at the start of the first rehearsal. We are very excited to be going to the Aix en Provence festival this year to perform Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande with Solonen. We have performed this with him before at our home the Royal Festival Hall; so I know that we and our audiences are going to be in for a treat. There’s also an absolute ton of Stravinsky coming up too!
So, working with great conductors and playing the fantastic repertoire is always a highlight. I am luckily old enough to remember some of the conductors who are sadly no longer with us. We recorded all ten Mahler Symphonies with Lorin Maazel a few years ago and I’m so proud that I was part of that. Kurt Masur was another terrible loss to our world and the orchestra always responded so well and felt privileged to work under his supervision. I also loved working with Sir Charles Mackerras who was very dear to the Philharmonia and was a huge presence on stage as well as off.
We have a lot of exciting projects coming up and have just come back from a tour to Madrid with the spritely Herbert Blomstedt. We did two wonderful concerts including Beethoven’s 6th & 7th, Mozart’s 39th and Bruckner’s 4th. These were definitely highlights of my career!
I keep thinking of new highlights! I love performing at the Three Choirs Festival. Every year I look forward to it and have come across wonderful English music (and some less wonderful), but it is always such an event and whichever cathedral we are in that year, it is always packed to the rafters!
Do you have any advice for young musicians who would like to be part of an orchestra?
Well, life in an orchestra isn’t for everyone. The hours are long and the schedule sometimes gruelling. However, the rewards and opportunities to visit the world are endless!
Practice: I would say play in as many youth, student, music college orchestras as you can because it will be here that you begin to learn the disciplines of playing in a section. Playing in a youth orchestra will also teach you how to work as a team and will start you off on the correct path in terms of gaining knowledge of the repertoire. You will learn how to prepare for a performance and also how to sight read!
Practice sight reading: Sight read anything! However simple!
Practice with a metronome.
Practice orchestral excerpts and ask for advice from your teachers and orchestral players. Don’t be scared to ask for knowledge!
Perform in front of friends and family before auditions. It will make all the difference when the moment of auditions finally comes!
Don’t be discouraged if you fail an audition: Don’t give up. It will have happened to most people on the panel at some time or other and ask for feedback!
In your years with the Philharmonia have you seen any change in the demographic of the audience? Do you have any ideas about how to inspire a new generation of classical music listeners?
Naturally classical music audiences tend to attract an older audience (not only tastes but down to basics such as disposable income being more available!) and that’s remained a constant. I think schemes like Student Pulse have encouraged that demographic in larger and more regular numbers to concerts at an affordable price. Big challenges to bring a more diverse audience into the concert hall: this can only be achieved by building from the grass roots in schools and enabling young people to have access at a young age to the world of classical music.
Regionally, this is a bit harder but you can see from our Residencies that places such as Leicester where we have partnerships with two universities, that the audience is significantly more diverse than even five years ago.
As to inspiring young minds to classical music, I don’t have many ideas, but luckily we have a wonderful team in the Philharmonia office who work tirelessly to do exactly this! The Philharmonia Orchestra’s recent iOrchestra project which saw over 122,000 people over 26 weeks engage with the Philharmonia, many visiting multiple strands of the project. Many of these attendees were from communities who had little if any knowledge or previous access to orchestral music and via MusicLab, the installations and live concerts, set alight a genuine demand for orchestral music. Fundamental to the success of this project was taking the orchestra to their communities, creating a project that had no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of experiencing it, and empowering the visitor to develop their own relationship with orchestral music. The other really notable aspect of iOrchestra was placing orchestral music within people’s everyday lives where it ‘interrupted’ their daily behaviour: i.e. placing MusicLab in the centre of the housing estate, the installations in a giant tent in the heart of the town’s shopping centre and a live concert outdoors in the shopping centre. iOrchestra certainly proves that there is no shortage of appetite for what we do!
You can find Victoria on Twitter:@VictoriaIrish1 and you can listen to more of the Philharmonia on IDAGIO.
