Rivers Conservatory Prepares Gorski Twins for Life at London’s Royal Academy

From the time they were four years old, Sally and Sasha Gorski practiced the violin for two hours per day. It increased to three hours at age seven; from then on, it was at least four hours per day.

 

It's no surprise, then, that by the time they were seniors in high school, they were good enough to set off for the incredibly prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London.

 

"No one wants to practice for two hours a day when you're four years old," Sasha Gorski said. "We were fortunate enough to be one of those cases where you end up loving it."

 

Sasha and her twin sister, Sally, started taking music lessons at The Rivers School Conservatory when they were in fifth grade. Until then, they had been taught by their mother, who was a once member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and owned her own studio, where she trained them both on the violin and the piano.

 

By the time Sally and Sahsa started lessons at Rivers under the tutelage of Magdalena Richter, it was clear already that they were already something special.

 

"We never did sports or anything—orchestra was like our team," Sasha said. "We've been doing the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra since the age of 8. It's like the little kid of the BSO."

 

For Sasha, the moment she realized she wanted to play music for a living came when she was in fourth grade.

 

"We were playing a Mahler symphony," she said. "We were the youngest musicians—everyone else there was 16, 17 years old, and we were in fourth grade. Months of effort, of yelling from our conductor, of sweat and tears had come together, and it was beautiful."

 

Until that time, Sally wasn't sure she was good enough to make a career out of music. That all changed when she was nine years old, performing at her mother’s Halloween concert.  

 

"I was wearing a parrot costume and playing Mendelssohn," she said. "It was a really big piece, and I was shaking. I remember coming off the stage, and everyone gave me a standing ovation. That was the moment when I turned from a student into a musician."

 

By the time they started high school and the Conservatory Program at Rivers, the twins were on a clear track: to gain acceptance to a classical music program at the college level. Ideally, the Royal Academy would be their destination—but setting your sights on a program that admits about five American students per year certainly comes with sacrifices.

 

"You have to give up a lot—social life, sleep—we had to miss out on stuff because we were practicing," Sasha said. "We never hung out with people on the weekends because we were always practicing."

 

"But in the end, it was worth it," Sally added.

 

Finding enough time to practice was no small feat. The twins, who grew up in Franklin, Mass., lived almost an hour away from Rivers. The types of students who would be competing against them for spots in the world’s most prestigious music schools had been preparing for the admissions process since the age of 10.

 

"Our competitors were home-schooled and would practice for 10 hours a day," Sasha said. "We had to practice so much to even keep up."

 

That's where the Conservatory Program factored in. Rivers devised a unique curriculum for the twins that would allow them the requisite practice time while making sure that they maintained a full class schedule and finished within four years with the necessary graduation requirements.

 

But still—how did they find time for everything?

 

"We don't sleep," Sasha and Sally deadpanned in unison.

 

In actuality, the twins would receive their assignments well in advance and met frequently with teachers for extra guidance, which proved necessary if they had to miss a class here or there for an audition or a competition.

 

"Rivers was so understanding of that," Sasha said.

 

Despite their long daily practice sessions—which regularly occurred before school, after school, and during free periods—both girls managed to maintain grades good enough to stay on the high honor roll.

 

But that’s not to say it was easy. Both girls auditioned for nine schools, and the auditions came in stages: Once an applicant advanced past the preliminary stage—for which the main requirement was about four hours of recorded music—he or she earned the right to audition live and in person. 

 

"The recordings were so important because they were the first impression," Sally said. "That was the hardest part because it requires a lot of practicing and getting everything perfect—and that was only one of several things you had to prepare. None of our schools were on the common app, and on top of that, we also had the pressure of senior fall and maintaining high honor roll."

 

When all was said and done, of their nine auditions, the one for the Royal Academy was the most successful.

 

"It was my best audition because I stopped caring," Sasha said. "I was like, 'I need to play how I want to play, and if you don't like me, that's fine.'"

 

That mentality seems to have paid off: Both girls were accepted to the world's very best schools, including Julliard, the Manhattan School of Music, Johns Hopkins, and, of course, Royal. But their final decisions were not difficult to make.

 

"Royal is an international school, and it only had five spots open for people outside of the U.K.," Sally said. "We knew if we didn't take those spots, there would be so many people who would want to take our spots."

 

Though Sally and Sasha are both eagerly awaiting the adventures—and the freedom—that will accompany living abroad for the first time, they know that they will miss their families as well as the weather in Boston. The rainy, cool climate in London isn't exactly ideal.

 

But neither of them plans to stay in London forever—and somewhat surprisingly, neither of them plans to pursue a career as a soloist.

 

"Being a soloist is a possibility only if you want to dedicate your life to it," Sally explained. And after dedicating her life up to this point to gaining admission to the Royal Academy, continuing on that kind of path is not on her agenda.

 

"I want kids one day," she said. "As a soloist, all you do is practice and travel, and I want a family."

 

Sasha, too, plans to pursue dreams that don’t include life as a soloist.

 

"I love orchestra, and I love chamber music, and soloing is great and dandy, but eventually, I want to teach in a college," she said. "It's hard to do everything in music because it's such a competitive field."

 

If the past has taught us anything, though, these two are going to be just fine—no matter what kinds of challenges life throws their way.

Click here to see a video about the Gorskis' experience at Rivers.