‘Everyone has a talent, and it must not be wasted ...’ North Devon Sinfonia, one of the finalists in the BBC’s Great Orchestra Challenge.

We are very used to celebrating the amateur, the enthusiast, the hidden talent in this country. From baking, dancing, singing and gardening to playing in brass bands, high diving, acting – you name it. We have two great beliefs which we in the UK celebrate with pride: one, that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve your goal; and two, that everyone has a talent, and that it must never be wasted.

At face value, “amateur” means what it says – people who love what they do. But there’s the negative meaning too: a beginner, someone inexperienced, who would best leave it to the professionals.

Amateur orchestras in the UK would give very short shrift to that idea, and rightly so. In difficult economic times, they continue to shine as one of our great cultural jewels.Making the new BBC series The Great Orchestra Challenge, my fellow judges and I have spent six months exploring this wonderfully rich part of our cultural life.

Germany might have the most professional orchestras in the world (a grand total of 130 full-time ones) but here in the UK we’re devoted to the world of amateur orchestras. There are so many, in fact, that we decided to make our series about symphony orchestras only, and excluded smaller groups with fewer than 40 players from our search. Even so, there were hundreds on our list that we eventually narrowed down to the five that made it on to the final shortlist.

Playing a full role in a serious amateur orchestra is not just about loving your music. These musicians must devote enormous time and energy to practising and preparing their music; travelling to rehearsals at evenings and weekends when their friends have their feet up; promoting their orchestra and raising money to make it all possible. We met farmers in Devon who make a 140-mile round trip to every rehearsal. Their orchestra, North Devon Sinfonia, serves some 3,000 sq miles of the most sparsely populated countryside in the UK. At the London Gay Symphony Orchestra, meanwhile, the conflict between your job as a busy City lawyer or banker and an intense rehearsal schedule for the next foreign trip adds a different kind of stress.

The benefits of playing in an amateur orchestra are rich, and richly deserved, for musicians and their audiences alike. Apart from the sheer life-enhancing thrill of practising a skill outside your nine-to-five life, making music of the visceral strength and quality that we came across can combat stress. Taking on the emotional responsibility towards your fellow musicians in a kick-ass performance of a big romantic symphony, or a brand new commissioned Dance Suite, generates pride in yourself and your community. And communicating all that energy and talent to your audience contributes immeasurably to their lives too. While the local authorities are struggling with the tangible, financial assets of their community services, amateur music-making is pouring social benefits and social profits into the community.

There are of course tough challenges along the way. All our orchestras have different battles to fight. The mounting cost of concerts, of hiring sheet music (especially contemporary works which cost far more) is theirs to bear, all at a time when external support is harder to come by. In the relative serenity of central Scotland, difficulties with performing venues throw up last-minute performance crises (triumphantly resolved!) for Stirling Orchestra . For the People’s Orchestra in inner-city Birmingham, the open-door policy of welcoming everyone who wants to play (at a very high standard) means making expert high-speed musical arrangements to accommodate eight flutes and five saxophones. The orchestra commissions new works regularly, gives eight big concerts a year, numerous community events for mental health charities and care homes, works tirelessly to secure Arts Council, EU, and trust fund money, and has employed 200 back-to-work volunteers in its short history. After that, arranging and playing Berlioz’s March to the Scaffold (with added saxophones) for our contest was the icing on the cake.

Our most senior orchestra, the 125-year old Slaithwaite Philharmonic in West Yorkshire, has to be as energetic as the newest whippersnapper on the block. Surrounded by some of the busiest and strongest amateur orchestral playing anywhere in the UK, with fierce competition from orchestras in six neighbouring cities, Slaithwaite can’t rest on its laurels. They nearly folded 40 years ago – dark days remembered as if yesterday. They came back fighting. This year’s birthday celebrations reach a grand climax with Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.

I saw our job very clearly: to use this golden opportunity to celebrate the thousands of devoted amateur musicians across the country, to challenge our orchestras to achieve more and better and to help them to discover untapped potential. We chose musical challenges that would play to the orchestras’ strengths, while also challenging them to go one step further.

Comparing orchestras with such contrasting characters and personalities was the hardest part: deciding which group best met the challenge of playing great symphonies, or opera arias, or concertos, or which orchestra found the most dynamic and inspiring way to attract and hold its audiences, was very difficult. My guiding principle was simple: I was not looking only for technical prowess and excellence, but rather for the spirit and enthusiasm that makes an amateur performance uniquely special. If it was going to be a contest, I wanted to see our orchestras raising their own bars as much as trying to go better than the others.

My colleague and friend Chi-chi Nwanoku – who is currently breaking down barriers with Chineke! Orchestra for black and ethnic minority musicians – has been a constant inspiration as mentor and guide to the orchestras. Katie Derham , occasionally called on in the series to demonstrate her dancing prowess, has her own treasured experience as an amateur violinist to add to her support for the musicians.

These days, we are becoming better and better at consuming culture, and music in particular. We hear and know more music than ever, delivered in incredible quality on “platforms”, on which we sit listening, often in passive isolation. Music, a visceral force for drawing people together, for communicating drama or just pure emotion, needs more performers and fewer headphones. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who doesn’t love music. And we’re all very capable of making it.

Thankfully, despite the very patchy record of funded music education in schools in recent generations, there is still a strong and proud bedrock of enthusiastic amateur orchestral musicians in the UK. We discovered them carrying the flame for amateur music-making, on a mission to play the music they love and cherish, welcoming and encouraging newcomers to their orchestras round the country.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/mu...aul-daniel-bbc

Panteslah GB/UK menang besar di olimpiade rio. Mereka nyatanya,--- bahkan menghargai seorang amatiran beda bgt sama korut yg pake tekanan ke atlit2 professionalnya