GILROY
–
”
This is big, really big,
”
said 1999 Gilroy High School graduate Callie Siverson as she
described the odds against her winning a job with the coveted
French horn section in Canada’s Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
GILROY – “This is big, really big,” said 1999 Gilroy High School graduate Callie Siverson as she described the odds against her winning a job with the coveted French horn section in Canada’s Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
“There are 10 jobs available in the entire country in any given year for French horn players,” she said. “I didn’t expect anything like this to happen until at least my 30s.”
Surviving four rounds of elimination during the audition wasn’t easy. Musicians play behind screens so that no one can see their age, sex or size.
The 10-judge panel was made up of members of the orchestra – mostly in their 30s and 40s – and the conductor. They had to agree unanimously to choose a certain player.
Siverson was up against more than 30 other candidates, including one who was married to the principal horn player and who had been filling the position temporarily for one year.
“Since none of the judges could see who they were choosing until after I was offered the job, you can imagine their surprise when this 22-year-old woman walked out from behind the screen,” she said.
Rice University in Houston where Siverson finished her first year of graduate school in 2004 encourages students to leave school for such important professional opportunities.
“I chose Rice,” Siverson explained, “because it has a 97 percent success rate for horn players being hired, even better than Juilliard’s. On average, less than 1 percent of any graduating class of horn blowers is hired.”
Rice uses sports to help train its musicians for the stress of auditions.
“You have to become fearless,” Siverson said. “You train by doing jumping jacks one moment, then picking up the horn and playing the next. The heart rate of jumping jacks simulates the heart rate of a musician while playing.”
Music runs in the Siverson family. Siverson’s parents, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all play musical instruments.
Her father is a professional musician and piano technician who collects musical instruments of all kinds, so she grew up literally surrounded by instruments, including the French horn. In fact, her father’s collection became so extensive that she says her brother Rolf, a tuba player, got kicked out of his room to make way for more.
The French horn is not a typical instrument for a young person to choose to master. But the French horn has held a place of honor in Siverson’s family ever since it brought her parents together.
Erik and Nancy Siverson met in Gilroy over the French horn when they both signed up for lessons with the same teacher. Her mom always encouraged Callie Siverson to see how far music could take her.
“I knew if she had the ability to make it, she would,” she said
When Siverson was a French horn major at University of Southern California, her parents took off work early to make the five-hour drive down on Fridays to attend her concerts and arrived back home just in time for her dad to play music in church on Sunday morning.
But they never made her feel like it was any trouble for them.
“They wanted to come, and they were very enthusiastic about it,” she said. “They came to every single concert for four years. You can’t get anymore supportive than that.”
Before joining the Winnipeg Symphony, Siverson will spend the summer performing with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colo., known for intensively preparing talented young musicians for seats in symphony orchestras.
Callie invites everyone in the community to her Free Farewell Appreciation concert. Siverson said she feels indebted to Advent Lutheran for giving her so much musical experience.
“I learned harmony there singing in the choir,” she said. “And since there wasn’t sheet music for the French horn part, I learned improvisation by making up my own horn parts.”
Siverson credits Gilroy High School music teacher Phil Robb as one of the most influential people in her life.
“Callie was the type of student who always loved to work. She never shied away from musical challenges,” he said. “She was so advanced musically that there were times when I would be corrected by her. She was usually right.”
Siverson also said GHS band leader Joey Fortino was extremely influential.
It was playing in the Morgan Hill Wind Symphony and in as many community musical groups and shows as possible that gave her valuable musical experience, Siverson said.
“I made a billion mistakes in front of billions of people, but I learned from the other musicians I played with, at all ages and levels of ability. Everything I learned about music, I learned here.”
Even though she is joining the big-time now, Siverson won’t forget the lessons she has learned in the South Valley.
“Every time I come home, I am reminded of the reason I love playing music. I feel refreshed again because it’s like ‘oh yeah, this is fun‚'” she said.
Through her experience with the Henry Mancini Institute while at USC, she has played in orchestras with people like Diana Krall and Stevie Wonder, but Siverson reserves her greatest admiration for community musicians.
“They work 40-hour work weeks, but they love music so much that they give up their spare time to play,” she said. “These are my heroes.”
Her goal in the future is to be involved in musical outreach programs that benefit the community.
“I want to expose young people to other options,” she said. “I want them to know that it’s possible to continue with classical music. There’s life beyond band.”
Siverson’s concert will be held June 7 at 7 p.m. at Advent Lutheran Church in Morgan Hill 16870 Murphy Ave. She plans an audience-friendly selection of music, including medieval and romantic.
