Huntsville’s Ashley Hill shares stage with gifted Royal Conservatory of Music classical artists
Mark Sunday, May 4, as an opportunity to hear some exceptional young classical artists in concert at Huntsville’s Algonquin Theatre.
The Young Artists’ Performance Academy of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto will present an afternoon of excellent music, featuring a number of solo performances.
Twenty-four of the academy’s most gifted students will be visiting Huntsville, but for one of their members it will represent a trip back home.
Ashley Hill, a young Huntsville artist who honed her skills at the Huntsville Suzuki School of Music and in the Huntsville High School music program, has been attending the performance academy for the past year. Her commitment has involved trips to Toronto every Friday afternoon in time for lessons Friday evening, followed by an intensive day of classes and practice each Saturday.
LOCAL TALENT: Ashley Hill, a young Huntsville artist, will be appearing in concert at the Algonquin Theatre Sunday, along with 23 other gifted members of the Yound Artists' Performance Academy of the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Combine this commitment with certain school challenges and a regular work schedule and you can appreciate that she is one busy young woman.
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts is presenting the Royal Conservatory students primarily because of the link with Hill. “I was in the theatre lobby one day and Ashley was buying tickets to a show. When she was finished she asked if the festival had any room on its schedule to present a concert featuring her classmates,” recalled festival general manager Rob Saunders.
“I had just finished booking the spring season and my first thought was that we were full. However, when I got home I e-mailed the Conservatory contact and quickly came to an agreement.”
He continued: “Ashley has been a festival scholarship recipient at every age level and it just seemed so appropriate to provide an opportunity to have her come home and showcase both her skills and the skills of the talented students she is working with.”
Saunders next contacted Amanda Penner at the Huntsville Suzuki School to make sure there were no conflicts with their programming. “As part of the festival’s ongoing outreach program, we offered to donate net proceeds from the concert to assist the Suzuki School in their ongoing efforts.”
The Young Artists’ Performance Academy provides the ideal nurturing environment for committed, gifted, young classical musicians to perfect their performance skill, musicality and artistic excellence. Working together with world-class faculty and acclaimed guest artists, academy students share high-calibre musical experiences and celebrate each other in achieving an outstanding level of musicianship.
The academy is designed for gifted and dedicated musicians looking to challenge and refine their unique talents. They believe that young talent, expertly trained, can become great talent and that a nurturing, yet challenging creative environment produces disciplined, well-rounded artists. Surprisingly, they do not get many opportunities to perform outside the GTA and both the school directors and the students are thrilled about Sunday’s concert in Huntsville.
“We plan on featuring a number of our recent competition winners in the program,” said academy manager Alicia White. “The program will be very approachable with works by J.S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Rachmaninoff and Haydn.”
The concert will start at 2 p.m. and run for about 90 minutes. Adult tickets are $15 and there is special price of $2 for youth under 12, to encourage aspiring young artists to come and listen to these prodigies.
Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 789-4975, or online at www.huntsvillefestival.on.ca.
