The Sea to Sky String Youth Orchestra and their adult counterparts are set to take the stage for a performance at the Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church in Whistler on May 15.
The Youth Orchestra was launched last year following the success of the Sea to Sky Strings Orchestra founded by Yuko Iwanaga. Organizer Jen Dodds, director of advancement at the Whistler Waldorf School, sees the May performance as a great opportunity for students and audiences alike.
“It's a great opportunity for them to play with the adult orchestra and share that space with them,” she told Pique. “And it’s also just a wonderful community concert at an affordable price.”
The orchestra, which numbers between 10 and 15 musicians, comprises youth between the ages of 12 and 22 from Whistler Secondary, Pemberton Secondary and the Waldorf schools, as well as some homeschooled students.
The youth group was organized by Dodds to build out the area’s music programming and balance out Whistler and its neighbouring municipalities’ sports offerings.
“It was just about rounding out that community programming,” she recalled. “There was a gap in that arts and music programming for youth in the community, especially in programs that bring kids together.”
Dodds said the group-work aspect of the orchestra has been a standout in the feedback she has received from parents.
“Feedback from parents has been amazing,” she said. “The parent of a 12-year-old will go, ‘It's amazing that they get to play with musicians who are upper high school or even beyond.’ There’s not a lot of opportunity for that cross-grade or cross-age work to be done, otherwise.”
This concert is another opportunity to do the same, with the youth orchestra teaming up with the orchestra that inspired its founding.
Dodds credits lingtime local instructor Yuko Iwanaga with the growth of both Sea to Sky String Orchestras.
“Yuko is an exceptional musician and exceptional human being,” she noted. “She is the one who thought, ‘Let’s bring music to the Sea to Sky corridor with the adult orchestra.’ So it was that, but let’s do it for the kids.
“She just gives so much time to promoting music in our community.”
Dodds, inspired by Iwanaga’s lead, is working to enable the same opportunity for the corridor’s youth.
Case in point: since the group got started, they’ve performed at a wide range of venues. They entered the Howe Sound Performing Art Festival last year and went down to Squamish to play at the Hilltop House and Shannon Falls retirement homes.
“It's great that the kids of their own sort of volition and interest get together and are willing to make music and spread joy to the residents at the care homes,” said Dodds. “So there's that sort of element of giving back to the community as well that's been well received by really everyone—the kids, parents, as well as the care home.”
The orchestra is always looking for new string-instrument-playing members. Those looking to join will have to be an intermediate or advanced musician, and will get time to perform in a casual audition, one-on-one with the conductor.
This upcoming performance marks the youth orchestra’s second performance of 2025, following a winter concert at the Fairmont in Whistler.
General admission tickets for the event cost $22.63. Tickets for students are $11.98, and free for kids under six years of age.
The money goes back into the orchestra—“even sheet music costs money,” Dodds reminds us—covering future performance costs, and possible future trips for students.
