Young musicians play with acclaimed conductor in Moncton

Some lucky young musicianshad the rare opportunityto work with an internationallyrenownedconductor in MonctonrecentlywhenMaestro Alexander Shelley paid them visit.

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Shelley is the new music directorof the National Arts Centre Orchestra and chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra.

Hewasinvited towork with childrenin theSistema NB Children's Orchestraand both theMoncton andthe New Brunswick youth orchestras.

Speaking to Information Morning Moncton, Shelley said he had been "hearing a lot about what's happening here in New Brunswick" andwanted to experience it first-hand.

It was a real blast!- Joel Phi, 11,N.B. Youth Orchestra

'It's an extraordinary privilege for me to behere," he said.

Shelley was invited by Sistema NB, a program of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. Sistema,begun in the barrios of Venezuela, promotes social change through music, with the goal of improving the lives of children and families through music.

More than 700 children are involved in thismusic programaround the province,according to Sistema NB.

Antonio Delgado, musical director and conductor of theNew Brunswick Youth Orchestra and Sistema, who isoriginally from Venezuela, said he was excited to host Shelley.

"[He is] super good with kids, which is not a given. It's a special and unique quality," said Delgado.

Joel Phi, 11, plays the violin and is the leader of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. His description of working with the Maestro?

"It was a real blast," said Phi.

"He has a very nice vocabulary and he uses it and his [facial] expressions to show the orchestra how to do a certain piece ... every conductor seems to have a certain, like, personality for what they want and I find his very nice," said Phi.

Avery Kennedy,14, plays flutewith the NBYO and she said working with Shelley was"an amazing experience."

"You can see that he's really very passionate about what he does ... I definitely saw the orchestra improve an amazing amount in just thesmall amount of time ... that we got to work with him," said Kennedy.

Shelley said he plans to return to Moncton to work with the youth orchestras again.

"It's a model for how you can achieve extraordinary change through music."