Musical mastery gives Perse clarinettist double cause for celebration
Talented clarinettist Alicia (Upper Sixth) has been blown away with her recent musical successes.
She has been named as principal clarinet in this year’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO), having also reached the quarter-finals of the BBC Young Musician 2024 competition.
Alicia was delighted to be handed the prestigious role with the NYO having been involved with the orchestra for the last three years, originally on violin.
“For the past two years I’ve been in the clarinet section and it’s been so amazing,” she said. “It’s my favourite thing, every school holiday being with your friends. Because there are only seven people in the clarinet section, it’s a really tight-knit group.
“The principals are selected based on all the years you’ve been in the NYO previously, along with your audition for the latest year, so I’m really happy to have been chosen to be principal this year. It’s a peak moment.”
Alicia explained that the role was as much a pastoral task as a musical one and she is looking forward to helping younger musicians find their feet in the NYO.
She said: “The NYO is made up of people from 13-18 and being a principal is about looking after people who are new to the experience, as well as just being a mentor to the younger ones. All the principals I’ve had have been so inspiring to me and I hope I can be the same to them.
“I want to make them feel as comfortable as possible because the NYO is the perfect place to make amazing friends who you know you’re going to be in touch with forever.”
Alicia will be joined by fellow Perse student and bassoonist Smera Sachin (Upper Sixth) in the NYO as they look forward to a series of concerts starting in January with performances of Ravel’s Bolero, Catamorphosis by Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Nielsen’s Symphony No 4 at the Barbican in London, Warwick Arts Centre and Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall.
However, Alicia has also become a star of screen as well as stage after making it to the last 12 in this year’s BBC Young Musician, with the auditions and her subsequent quarter-final at Swansea University featuring on BBC Four.
She said: “Having played music for such a long time – I was at the Royal Academy for nine years – you grow up with BBC Young Musician. Some of my friends have taken part, so I just thought I’d enter to see how far I could go.
“The first stage was a video round and from that 50 people were chosen for the live auditions, and then 12 people were selected for the quarter-finals.
“It took a long time to decide what to play and in the later stages I did pieces I hadn’t played before. It was a good opportunity to really drive myself to learn them and understand them quite quickly.
“I wasn’t really expecting anything from it, so I never put pressure on myself to get very far. It was amazing for me to get to the quarter-final and it was just a really cool experience.”