‘Witnessing something special’: 11 year old violinist who is wowing Queensland audiences
Violin prodigy Alessandro Martinese is only 11 but he’s wowing audiences as part of the Queensland Youth Orchestra. WATCH THE VIDEO.
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When 11-year-old Alessandro Martinese played a solo violin piece at Queensland Youth Orchestras’ recent fundraising gala, the audience was amazed. They knew they were witnessing something special.
For QYO artistic director Simon Hewett it was yet another “aha” moment that confirmed to the internationally renowned Brisbane conductor he had made the right choice coming home to head the organisation that nurtured him. And Alessandro Martinese.
“Alessandro brought the house down,” Hewett says.
“He played a real virtuoso piece, Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen, and he was a star performer that evening.”
Which is not to take anything away from the other two young musicians he teamed up with on stage, one of whom was his sister Anneliesa, 13, also a violinist and the other a talented 10-year-old cellist named Deshan Conaghan.
Alessandro is, in musical terms, a prodigy and there have been many over the centuries from Mozart on, and QYO has produced its fair share including the incredible Brisbane violinist Ray Chen, who is a bit of a superstar on the world stage.
But Simon Hewett is careful not to overstate the case with young Alessandro Martinese.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him,” Hewett insists. “His path is his own but the signs are there. When I hear that his mum has to remind him to stop practising, rather than to start practising, well that gives you some idea. He lives for the violin.”
Alessandro Martinese’s parents Shanthi and Franco, both Gold Coast medicos, have just returned from a European vacation where Alessandro played in Belgium and at London’s Royal Albert Hall, a concert appearance that came about after he won an online competition. His mum is careful not to single out Alessandro, saying both her children “have achieved far more than we thought possible” as a result of talent, private tuition and participation in the music program at Queensland Youth Orchestras in Brisbane. Both Alessandro and Anneliesa play in the 3rd Queensland Youth Orchestra, known as QYO 3.
“Mostly I don’t have to crack the whip,” Shanthi says.
“Sometimes we have to stop Alessandro practising. It’s hard to stop him though because he’s so motivated. He follows us around the house playing.”
The family lives in the Currumbin Valley in the Gold Coast hinterland and Saturdays they make an excursion to Brisbane to QYO’s Bowen Hills headquarters at The Old Museum, where hundreds of young musicians gather every weekend. For Alessandro’s dad Franco his son is inspirational.
“Seeing the enthusiasm and hard work does inspire us,” he says. “It was emotional to watch him play at the gala and also perform at Somerset College recently too, where the kids go to school, and there were so many people with tears in their eyes. I felt a bit silly because I was the same.
“Alessandro just has this ability to connect with people when he is playing,” mum Shanthi says.
Alessandro himself admits he was a bit nervous playing at the recent QYO gala.
“But I was playing something I had played multiple times,” he says. “And I practise a lot. I try to do at least two hours a day and more in the holidays. I like being in the QYO because it’s good to be around other musicians.”
Sister Anneliesa enjoys his success and is not competitive.
“Although sometimes Alessandro does get competitive,” she admits.
“We sometimes play duets together and that’s enjoyable.”
And they have busked, too, in the mall at Broadbeach raising funds for the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.
Developing young talent is what QYO does and has been doing since it was founded by the late John Curro in 1966. The organisation quickly grew to become the strongest youth orchestra training organisation in Australia and is now regarded as one of the world’s best instrumental and orchestral training programs.
QYO was the first Australian youth orchestra to tour internationally and it provides a critical talent pipeline for Australia’s musical ecosystem. Every year young musicians from eight to 25 audition for about 550 positions in eight QYO ensembles – three large orchestras, two symphonic wind ensembles, two junior string ensembles and a big band.
QYO trains future generations of professional musicians, conductors, tertiary music educators, music teachers in schools, arts administrators and concert goers.
Its flagship orchestra, the Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS) flies the flag for Queensland here and abroad and in November the orchestra will be embarking on an overseas tour that will take in Singapore, Vienna, Salzburg, Bamberg, Jena, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg and Bremen. They will be the first Australian symphony orchestra to perform in Vienna’s fabled Musikverein Concert Hall, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic.
The list of QYO alumni is impressive and includes Ray Chen, the group TwoSetViolin, acclaimed oboe player Diana Doherty of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, violinist Dene Olding, composer Brett Dean and his brother Paul, who in addition to teaching at the Queensland Conservatorium and helming Ensemble Q, also conducts QYO 2.
Last year Paul’s first symphony won the Paul Lowin Prize, Australia’s most prestigious award for orchestral composition. QYO promptly has commissioned Paul to write another major symphony, which is scheduled for its world premiere by QYS in 2024.
The alumni list also includes Simon Hewett, who brought his family home from Europe when Covid hit to take over the role vacated when his mentor, the late John Curro died in 2019. Hewett, 46, who will be overseas conducting at the famous La Scala in Milan later in the year before joining the QYO tour, played clarinet in QYO as a lad.
“And John Curro gave me my first conducting opportunities when I started conducting the QYS at the age of 20,” Hewett says.
“Many people, myself included, found it hard to imagine the QYO without John. He did the job for 53 years.”
So Hewett took over the role with some trepidation but it’s fair to say that, years in, there is no trepidation at all. In fact he is enlivened by his work with young musicians who constantly astound him. One moment in particular still resonates. That was in September 2021 when he conducted the QYS playing Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, an ambitious and monumental work. Anyone who was in the Concert Hall at QPAC that night was blown away by the professionalism of the players.
“That was the moment when I thought, ‘We can do anything’,” Hewett recalls.
“The atmosphere backstage afterwards was like they had all just won the grand final. You had young musicians, arm-in-arm, jumping up and down. It was as if they wanted to go back out on stage and play it all over again. Something like that really puts the wind in your sails.”
Hewett is proud to be taking that orchestra overseas and hopes to raise funds to do that.
“If people can donate it would be helpful,” he says.
His job is not just music, it’s the business of running an organisation that needs support on several levels. Since 1989 the Queensland government has allowed the QYO to use The Old Museum and in March 2022 QYO received a pledge of $20m from an international philanthropist, a touring concert pianist who was inspired by Hewett’s vision for the future. The money is to be used to help preserve the The Old Museum and Simon Hewett hopes the state government will confirm their tenure and also help keep this heritage building in shape. QYO chair Ian Walker says the building has been the QYO’s home for 30 years.
“It was Brisbane’s first concert hall and Dame Nellie Melba sang there, Percy Grainger played there. But these heritage buildings are not cheap to maintain,” he says.
Walker confirms that the state government is committed to a business case to plan for the building’s future.
Diana Doherty has great memories of learning her craft in that building. Growing up at Greenslopes, she attended Brisbane State High and loved her years at QYO. A successful international career followed and young musicians are now creating their own memories – like Isabella Geeves, 21, who is QYS first trumpet. Geeves is now in her fourth year at the Queensland Conservatorium.
“It was a revelation,” she says.
“I had only been involved in school programs so QYO wa eye-opening.”
Soprano Nina Korbe, 24, was recently announced as QYO artist in residence. “I’ll be going on the international tour with them which is exciting,” she says. “I’m so impressed with the standard of music.”
Korbe, a First Nations artist with a Koa, Kuku Yalanji, Wakka Wakka background, says Saturdays at The Old Museum are busy and enjoyable.
If you want to see these amazing young performers there is a string of public performances before they head to Europe. Alessandro Martinese won’t be going this time. He will be at home practising and practising and practising.
qyo.org.au
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