‘I’ve achieved my dream. I feel loved and valued in this orchestra’

Silvija Scerbaviciute's life has always been filled with music. The daughter of two professional orchestral musicians, she spent her childhood playing around the backstage area of Lithuania's national opera and ballet theatre in Vilnius.

“When I was little, they would always bring me backstage so I could sit through the dress rehearsals. There were all these hallways leading into the stalls and that’s where myself and another girl, the daughter of the cellist, we would dance. We tried to imitate the dancers on stage, dancing to the music of Carmen.”

Back at home, the orchestral tones of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No 2 provided the soundtrack for Scerbaviciute’s bedtime routine. “My parents told me whenever they needed me to go to sleep they put Rachmaninoff on. That was my lullaby.”

“It was really exciting growing up in a household of two musicians. My parents took their work really seriously and practised all the time. They still do. I found it really inspiring how much work they put into their music, perfecting the melodies they had to play.”

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'I never thought of doing anything else, I never thought of quitting. It felt like such a natural call to be a performer'

Scerbaviciute’s mother played principal flute for the opera house orchestra while her father played principal French horn. When she was six, Scerbaviciute enrolled in the national school of arts and music where she chose to play flute.

“At that time, in the late 1990s, there still weren’t many women playing brass instruments so I had this weird idea that women didn’t play the French horn. I just said I wanted to play flute because I wanted to be like my mum. I loved her sound and I think she’s such an emotional and expressive player.”

Scerbaviciute loved playing flute and knew by the age of 10 she wanted to pursue a career in music. “I never thought of doing anything else, I never thought of quitting. It felt like such a natural call to be a performer. I loved being on stage and had big dreams. I thought to myself, I can really do this.”

Nearly two decades on, sitting in the house in Monkstown in south Dublin where she is currently staying, the professional flautist reflects on the support her parents always gave her. "We're a very close-knit family and used to being close together so it was extremely difficult when I decided to leave."

Scerbaviciute was just 16 years old when she moved to the United Kingdom in 2011 to study for her A-levels at the Chetham's School of Music, a specialist music school in Manchester. "There were loads of tears during those first few months but you get used to being away from your family, you have to do certain things to achieve your dreams."

After completing her A-levels, Scerbaviciute was accepted into the Royal Academy of Music in London where she spent the following four years. “It was such a change from anything I’d ever experienced, London felt humongous. It swallows you up at first but then you swim out and find your community, your friends and your hobbies. It’s a great place to grow as a musician and as a human being.”

Still, building a career as a professional musician is always challenging and Scerbaviciute admits to having “moments of feeling very low” during her studies. “Any path requires a lot of rejection but you pick yourself back up again because of this deep belief that you want to do it.”

After completing her studies, Scerbaviciute remained in London to take part in a programme with the London Philharmonic. She also taught younger students while practising her own music about four hours each day. In 2018, she auditioned to join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and was offered a trial with the orchestra, playing with them on a number of occasions over the following two years.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Scerbaviciute initially felt relieved to have some time off work. “I had been freelancing a lot around the whole of the UK and abroad. It was a very busy lifestyle, I was living out of a suitcase. It was exciting but also very busy.

“When Covid hit I thought I’ll have some time to work on new things and practise but then I realised it was going on a lot longer than I’d thought. I actually found the first lockdown totally fine in terms of motivation but the second lockdown was hard because it was very dark and gloomy. But I got a bike and started cycling and that kept me sane.”

Teaching her students over Zoom was also challenging. “When you’re in the room with a musician you can hear exactly what’s happening; with Zoom you have to slightly guess. Sometimes Zoom just cut out the sound.”

In February 2021, Scerbaviciute was offered the position of principal flute with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. She flew to Dublin, arriving into a deserted city where people were still locked away, weathering the third Covid-19 lockdown. After quarantining for a fortnight in an Airbnb in Drumcondra, Scerbaviciute moved into the home of violinist Clodagh Vedres in Monkstown where she rehearsed over Zoom with her new colleagues.

'Sitting in the principal flute seat can be high pressure, especially when you're new. But when you play with others you feed off each other's energy and passion'

“I was so excited about my new job but I couldn’t see my colleagues and didn’t have any friends, so without Clodagh I would have felt extremely lonely. But it was the total opposite. We had loads of wine and cooking nights and really the lockdown flew by for us.”

Watching the UK reopen in early spring while Ireland remained in lockdown was very frustrating, she admits. "All my friends in the UK were enjoying themselves and playing together again and we were still locked up, that was tough. But you just have to push through and a few weeks later we did go into the studios for the first time."

Face-to-face rehearsals and performances fully resumed for the orchestra in August and Scerbaviciute now feels very comfortable in her new surroundings. “It’s such a friendly and warm orchestra, I immediately felt like I was welcomed into the family of these musicians.

“Sitting in the principal flute seat can be high pressure, especially when you’re new. But when you play with others you feed off each other’s energy and passion. When you don’t have that, playing music can be lonely. It’s that togetherness and sharing of emotions, that is what we feel as musicians.”

She is now looking forward to touring around Ireland with the orchestra and hopes to also start playing more contemporary music. “I feel I’ve achieved my dream of getting into an orchestra. And I feel loved and valued by the people in this orchestra, that’s a nice feeling.”

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com. @newtotheparish