Toshiyuki Shimada says it’s an honor to perform at Aya İrini

“This program is very special for both Yale University and for the Turkish people,” said Toshiyuki Shimada, the conductor of the orchestra, in an interview with Today’s Zaman. “There are certain connections that are significant to this program. First of all we’re bringing [the music of] Leonard Bernstein, and he has a strong tie with Yale University. We have performed many of his pieces, and he had visited the Yale campus. One of the former conductors was a student of Bernstein.”

The orchestra performed Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto for the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth and also played a composition by Turkish composer Ferit Tüzün, called “Esintiler” (Breezes), for the first time. “It’s a very famous piece, and it seems that every orchestra coming here likes to perform this piece. After starting to rehearse it, we felt that we can reflect some of the wonderful flavor of Turkish music in there, the energy of the Turkish people in this music. It was great for our orchestra to perform that piece, too, to be proud that we can perform Turkish music. It might not be in an authentic way, but it’s our own way.”

Shimada also expressed the orchestra’s pleasure in performing with internationally renowned Turkish pianist İdil Biret. “We are delighted that İdil Biret will be with us,” says Shimada. “I think it’s very important to perform with musicians from the country that you visit. It’s very fortunate and we’re honored to perform with her.”

“And it is a great honor to play in such a historic place as Aya İrini; the students are very excited,” adds Shimada. “All this Turkish history is fantastic,” says Shimada. “I’ve only read about it in books, and places like Ayasofya, I’ve looked at their pictures for so many years but now I’m here and to perform next to Ayasofya in Aya İrini is unbelievable!”

The origin of their Turkish adventure is rather interesting. “The flutist in our orchestra, her roommate is Turkish and is related to the rector of Boğaziçi University,” explained Shimada. “Originally, there was just talk that it would be great if we could go to Turkey, but then our flutist said her roommate’s mother was related to the rector of Boğaziçi University. So that’s where the spring came from, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.”

The orchestra was originally only going to play in İstanbul and İzmir, but the project was expanded to Ankara later on. “Someone said we should go to Ankara, and so we’re going to perform in Ankara, too,” he exclaimed. “This couldn’t have happened without the generosity of the universities.”

Shimada and his orchestra still have other plans to be realized in Turkey in the coming years. “One of the things we wanted to do here which didn’t happen is to hold youth concerts in some schools here for the schoolchildren,” says Shimada. “We wanted to do it, but maybe the next time. I hope to come back, I really do hope so.”

Like another family

The Yale Symphony is composed of undergraduate students, not necessarily music students; there are only a few of them who are music students, the others are biology majors, history majors, chemistry majors. There are similar orchestras in other universities such as Princeton and Harvard.

Shimada expressed confidence in his orchestra. “I think we’re one of the top among the undergraduate university orchestras; I’m proud to say that.”

The diversity of students forming the orchestra also attracts attention. “There are a lot of students with an Asian background in the orchestra,” notes Shimada and exclaims, “Well, I’m of Asian origin. There are a lot of Chinese origin, regular Americans. ... We used to have European students but not this year. There are some from Canada, from New Zealand.”

In spite of such cultural diversity, Shimada explains that they are trying to achieve the same target as an entity. “They were brought up in different cultures and they get together,” he said. “But the ultimate goal of a symphony orchestra is to play in unison with one sound. So everybody’s effort is to contribute, to get united. That’s an interesting point because everybody is from a different background, yet we’re trying to perform in the same way.”

As the students graduate from the university, they have to leave the orchestra behind, which is sometimes hard for the rest. “Unfortunately, we always lose some key players around this time and with this orchestra we’ll be losing around 10; this is their last concert. After they leave, they do their own things. Maybe some day I will create an alumni orchestra,” says Shimada.

Shimada’s orchestra benefitted from the conductor’s energy when he took over. “Every conductor brings a different type of energy to the orchestra,” explains Shimada. “We’re all different after all. ... Bringing a new direction, new ideas, new focus, new energy -- it automatically raises the whole group to a higher level, not meaning that I’m necessarily better than the former conductors. I’ve been with Yale University for almost five years, but I’m so excited about this orchestra because they’ve got so much energy and motivation to perform. These students don’t get any school credit, they play in the orchestra just for the joy of it. It’s not mandatory to do this, but they’re committed to participating in this orchestra, and the rehearsals are six hours a week. At concert time we rehearse for 12 hours a week even though they have to study for their chemistry tests, and all those very tough things at the university.”

Of course, it is not always that easy to control such a young group among whom there are 18-year-olds. “They’re so young!” exclaims Shimada laughing. “I’ve to stop them, like galloping horses, there’s so much energy in this orchestra.”

Shimada pursues his professional activities as well. “I also have a professional orchestra,” he says. “I have two different worlds, and I’m very fortunate.” However, there are certain differences between conducting a professional orchestra and a youth orchestra. “Ultimately the goal is the same,” says Shimada. “But the young orchestra takes a lot more time to get to the end point. In the professional orchestra we just perform four days before the concert. But with this orchestra we need at least three weeks to get ready for a concert.”

Nevertheless, the students mean more than an orchestra to Shimada. “I have a son of my own, but they are like my own children, another family,” he says.