Teens from Montreal Suzuki String Orchestra tune up for big competition in Vienna

A group of musical teens from Montreal is making its way across the pond for an unprecedented adventure next month.

The Montreal Suzuki String Orchestra, a band made up of 12- to 18-year-old musicians, is heading to Vienna to the Summa Cum Laude Youth Music Festival.

They're the only Canadian orchestra participating in the competition.

The orchestra follows the Suzuki method, a music curriculum that puts less emphasis on competing than some other forms.

"It's like learning like a language," said conductor Dragan Djerkic of the Suzuki method. "[The musicians] don't start with reading the notes, they start with listening and kind of imitating."

'A whole new ball game'

According to the orchestra, it's the first time a Suzuki orchestra from anywhere in the world will participate in the Austrian competition.

Zara Fox, a violinist and vocalist with the orchestra and a Vanier College CEGEP student, is excited for the orchestra's first trip abroad.

"I've been performing since I was little but competing is a whole new ball game for me," she said.

Fox and the others will be there with groups of young people from around the world, performing on two of Vienna's most famous stages. They'll also be performing a series of touring concerts.

The group has been fundraising to make it possible, and have dubbed the trip "the 2018 Road to Vienna: Leave No Musician Behind tour to Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, and Prague."

Sunday, the orchestra is performing at the Oscar Peterson Concert hall, where they will play many of their competition pieces.

On July 1, they are also set to perform a free Canada Day concert in Côte Saint-Luc.