Young Soloists Competition

My mother is a trombone player; currently she's active both in the administration and as a musician of the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, which is an amateur orchestra with a lot of young people of all races. I'd been to a rehearsal before, which was a lot of fun, but today I got to see the orchestra live for the 2009 Young Soloists Competition. The concert had gotten a lot of media attention, including a feature on Radio 702, so there was a really strong turn out; at one stage both my parents, my brother and I were all working alongside each other at the ticket desk together, desperately trying to keep up with the constant stream of people coming through the doors. Many of them brought their children with.

The concert was really enjoyable for me, not just for the great music and the sight of the children competing being so nervous and then composed and performing really well (some of them were about 8 years old) but also as an opportunity to take a lot of photos in challenging, low-light conditions.