[by Sue Anderlini, President] The Surrey Symphony Society continues to hold Saturday morning rehearsals for our four orchestras, including the two separate ensembles – the String Ensemble and the Wind Ensemble – which make up the Senior Orchestra. Each ensemble has its own repertoire and meets at separate times in the theatre for group instruction. We are continuing to offer students in all orchestras the option of in-person rehearsals, or virtual rehearsals, which occur simultaneously. All instructors, students, staff, and volunteers continue to abide by health protocols – wearing of masks, sanitizing hands, keeping socially distant at all times – as well as health declarations before entering the school.

An exciting new project the Senior Orchestra has taken on is called the Apollo Initiative. It involves the commissioning of a new work by Jordan Nobles and the digitally joining together of the playing of this piece by students in the Surrey Youth Senior Orchestra with those of five other B.C. youth orchestras. The youth orchestras involved are Surrey Youth Orchestra, Vancouver Youth Orchestra, Victoria Youth Orchestra, Langley Community Music School Orchestra, Coquitlam Youth Orchestra, and Okanagan Youth Orchestra.

The collected group has offered the following information:

The Apollo Initiative is a collective creation which will see the world premiere of a new work composed specifically for our students to perform digitally. We have commissioned Canadian composer Jordan Nobles to compose a new work which will allow for hundreds of musicians from all over the province to make music together digitally.

Jordan has created the piece with all of the parameters in mind. He also has the technical expertise to stitch multiple videos together into a polished whole. Each orchestra will oversee the recording of each part, either individually in private homes, or in small sections as safety protocols will allow. All of the video and audio will be submitted to Jordan who will magically transform it into one cohesive performance.

We want to give our students a musical goal for this season. In the absence of live performance, it is challenging to stay motivated. We recognize the importance of the social connection for our youth, especially in this challenging time of social distancing. Many of our students have their own struggles with mental wellness and we know that their participation in music supports them. For this reason, we have attached The Apollo Initiative to a fund raising goal for youth mental health. Our goal is to release the finished product on May 7th, 2021 which is BC Youth Mental Health day and that we will solicit donations with the video which will go exclusively to not for profit organizations which cater to youth mental wellness in each community of a participating orchestra.