New York Youth Symphony
Encyclopedia
The New York Youth Symphony is a tuition-free music organization for youth in New York City
. Its programs include its flagship symphony orchestra
, Chamber Music program, Jazz Band Classic, Apprentice Conducting, and Making Score(composition program). Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age. The Youth Symphony is also a leader in classical music with its innovative commissioning program called First Music, in which young composers are selected to write works for the programs. Each Orchestra program (there are three each year) includes such a world premiere. There is also a First Art commissioning program for young visual artists.
. Each program usually includes, at least, a cornerstone of the orchestral repertoire and a premiere of a commissioned work. Usually a soloist
or soloists will be performing, either an established artist, or a young artist as presented by the Roy and Shirley Durst Debut Series which was founded in 1997. The first Durst artist was Alisa Weilerstein
. For the 2010-2011 season, these artists were Anthony McGill
, Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera
, violinist Hahn-Bin
, and percussionist/composer Eric Guinivan
.
The orchestra has not appointed established educators to fill its role as music director. Rather, it has had music directors who at the time were young; many of those conductors have become renowned. The Music Directors of the Orchestra have been:
Ryan McAdams
is the current music director, with assistant conductor Sarah Kidd. He has achieved critical acclaim while with the Youth Symphony.
The program uses established musicians teach master classes. The coaches for 2008-2009 were:
dedicated to studying, rehearsing, and performing jazz music. Modeled on the bands of the 1930s and 1940s, Jazz Band Classic preserves this heritage and, keeping with jazz traditions, incorporates it into the current and emerging styles that define the genre for the present generation. Matt Holman is the director as of the 2010-2011 season. Performance spaces include The Garage
, Symphony Space
, and the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center
.
Jazz Band Classic has featured soloists and clinicians such as Joe Lovano
, Maria Schneider
, Conrad Herwig
, Scott Wendholt, Suzanne Morrison, Steve Turre
, Warren Vaché
, Victor Goines
, Slide Hampton
, Jimmy Heath
, Joe Locke
, Eric Reed
, Lew Soloff
, Gary Smulyan
, and Frank Wess
, giving students a chance to play alongside today's most exciting professional musicians.
,four-time winner of ASCAP Plus award. The founding director was Derek Bermel
.
Making Score's sessions are segmented into two distinct classes: Pre-college Division and Advanced Division. The sessions are conducted at two different times, designed to accommodate participants' skill level. Each division has eleven workshops held from November through June. The sessions explore the musical thought of a wide variety of composers, with a focus on orchestration. Examples are drawn from the vast classical and modern repertoire. Using tools such as study scores and orchestration books, the course aims to cultivate the students' own voices through class discussion, written exercises, and free composition."
Guest Lecturers include:
Laurie Anderson, violinist
Robert Beaser
, composer
Christopher Theofanidis, composer
Jennifer Higdon
, composer
Paquito D'Rivera
, jazz clarinet and saxophone
Ethel, string quartet
Nico Muhly
Stephen Sondheim
John Corigliano
Aaron Jay Kernis
, composer
Steve Reich
, composer
Kathleen Supové, pianist
, and other major ensembles throughout the world.
The New York Sun has called the orchestra "America's best youth symphony."
Review of the 12/6/2010 performance at Carnegie Hall by a local pop culture blogger:
http://www.theheej.com/2010/12/06/new-york-youth-symphony/
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Its programs include its flagship symphony orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, Chamber Music program, Jazz Band Classic, Apprentice Conducting, and Making Score(composition program). Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age. The Youth Symphony is also a leader in classical music with its innovative commissioning program called First Music, in which young composers are selected to write works for the programs. Each Orchestra program (there are three each year) includes such a world premiere. There is also a First Art commissioning program for young visual artists.
Symphony Orchestra
The Orchestra, the flagship program of the NYYS, was founded in 1963. It has had a tradition of seeking the best young orchestral talent in the New York area from ages 12 to 22. The orchestra plays three programs per year, each of which are performed at both Queens College Colden Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie HallCarnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. Each program usually includes, at least, a cornerstone of the orchestral repertoire and a premiere of a commissioned work. Usually a soloist
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
or soloists will be performing, either an established artist, or a young artist as presented by the Roy and Shirley Durst Debut Series which was founded in 1997. The first Durst artist was Alisa Weilerstein
Alisa Weilerstein
Alisa Weilerstein is an American cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.-Life and career:Weilerstein started playing the cello at age four. She made her debut at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. As a soloist she has performed with a...
. For the 2010-2011 season, these artists were Anthony McGill
Anthony McGill
Anthony McGill is the principal clarinetist for the Metropolitan Opera. McGill is originally from Chicago, Illinois, growing up in the city's Chatham neighborhood....
, Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, violinist Hahn-Bin
Hahn-Bin
Hahn-Bin is a Korean-American violinist. He made his international debut at age twelve at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 following a decade of study with Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program and the Juilliard School.- 1987–1999: Early years in Korea...
, and percussionist/composer Eric Guinivan
Eric Guinivan
Eric Guinivan is a percussionist, composer, founding member of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, and was principal timpanist of the YMF Debut Orchestra. He currently serves as a graduate teaching fellow at the University of Southern California and music instructor at Renaissance Arts Academy in...
.
The orchestra has not appointed established educators to fill its role as music director. Rather, it has had music directors who at the time were young; many of those conductors have become renowned. The Music Directors of the Orchestra have been:
- David Epstein (1963–1966)
- Leonard SlatkinLeonard SlatkinLeonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor and composer.-Early life and education:Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet,...
(1966–1968) - Richard Holmes (1968–1969)
- Isaiah JacksonIsaiah JacksonIsaiah Allen Jackson is an African American conductor of world renown. He has recently concluded a seven year term as conductor of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, of which he has been named Conductor Emeritus...
(1969–1973) - David Stahl (1973–1974)
- Kenneth Jean (1974–1976)
- Myung-Whun ChungMyung-Whun ChungMyung-whun Chung is a South Korean pianist and conductor.His sisters, violinist Kyung-wha Chung, and cellist Myung-wha Chung, and he at one time performed together as the Chung Trio. He was a joined second-prize winner in the 1974 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Chung studied conducting at...
(1976–1977) - Robert Hart Baker (1977–1981)
- Salvatore Scecchitano (1981–1982)
- David Alan MillerDavid Alan MillerDavid Alan Miller is a prominent American classical music symphony orchestra conductor, and for the past several years, the conductor of the Albany Symphony Orchestra.-Early career and education:...
(1982–1988) - Samuel WongSamuel WongSamuel Wong is a Hong Kong-born Canadian conductor and ophthalmologist .Trained at Harvard and Columbia, Dr. Wong is an eye surgeon practicing in Manhattan, Brooklyn and upstate New York....
(1988–1993) - Miguel Harth Bedoya (1993–1997)
- Mischa Santora (1997–2002)
- Paul Haas (2002–2007)
- Ryan McAdamsRyan McAdamsRyan Bell McAdams is an American conductor and currently the 15th Music Director of the .-Education:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he was twice a student at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. After graduating from Clayton High School, McAdams began his undergraduate studies in 2000 at Indiana...
(2007–Present)
Ryan McAdams
Ryan McAdams
Ryan Bell McAdams is an American conductor and currently the 15th Music Director of the .-Education:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he was twice a student at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. After graduating from Clayton High School, McAdams began his undergraduate studies in 2000 at Indiana...
is the current music director, with assistant conductor Sarah Kidd. He has achieved critical acclaim while with the Youth Symphony.
Chamber Music program
The Chamber Music program provides musicians aged 12 to 22 opportunity to participate in chamber ensembles of a variety of instrumentations. Its current director is Lisa Tipton of the Meridian Quartet.The program uses established musicians teach master classes. The coaches for 2008-2009 were:
- Claude Frank, concert pianist,
- Kazuhide Isomura, viola, The Tokyo Quartet
- Kathe Jarka, Alexander teacher
- Gilbert Kalish, concert pianist
- Ani Kavafian, violin/viola, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
- Alan Kay, Clarinet, Orpheus Program Coordinator
- Joel Krosnick, cello, Juilliard String QuartetJuilliard String QuartetThe Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York. The original members were violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd; Current members are Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes violinists,...
- Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
- Frank Morelli, bassoon, Orpheus Chamber OrchestraOrpheus Chamber OrchestraThe Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a Grammy Award-winning classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. It is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, interpret the score....
- Charles Neidich, clarinet, faculty of the Juilliard SchoolJuilliard SchoolThe Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
- Daniel Phillips, violin, The Orion Quartet
- Shanghai QuartetShanghai QuartetThe Shanghai Quartet a string quartet that formed in 1983. The quartet is made up of four members: first violinist Weigang Li, second violinist Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras. The group’s tours have included North America, South America, Japan, China, Australia,...
members - Fred SherryFred SherryFred Sherry is an American cello virtuoso who is particularly admired for his work as a chamber musician and concert soloist. He studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School before winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. In 1971 he co-founded the Speculum Musicae...
, cello, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center - Carol Wincenc, flute, The New York Woodwind QuintetNew York Woodwind QuintetThe New York Woodwind Quintet is an ensemble-in-residence at the Juilliard School in New York City, originally appointed in 1987. At Juilliard, the members of the New York Woodwind Quintet present seminars each year for student woodwind ensembles, give regular coachings, and perform.The quintet's...
- Carmit Zori, violin
Jazz Band Classic
Jazz Band Classic is a 16 member big bandBig band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
dedicated to studying, rehearsing, and performing jazz music. Modeled on the bands of the 1930s and 1940s, Jazz Band Classic preserves this heritage and, keeping with jazz traditions, incorporates it into the current and emerging styles that define the genre for the present generation. Matt Holman is the director as of the 2010-2011 season. Performance spaces include The Garage
The Garage
The Garage may refer to:Places*The Garage , a small shopping center located in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts*The Garage , a large night club located in Glasgow, Scotland...
, Symphony Space
Symphony Space
Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...
, and the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
.
Jazz Band Classic has featured soloists and clinicians such as Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider (musician)
Maria Schneider is an American arranger, composer, and big-band leader who has won multiple awards. In 2005, her album Concert in the Garden won a Grammy for "Best Large Ensemble Album"...
, Conrad Herwig
Conrad Herwig
Conrad Herwig is a jazz trombonist from New York City in the United States. He has recorded 20 albums as a leader.-Biography:He began his career in Clark Terry's band in the early 1980s and has been a featured member in the Joe Henderson Sextet, Tom Harrell’s Septet and Big Band, and the Joe...
, Scott Wendholt, Suzanne Morrison, Steve Turre
Steve Turre
Steve Turre is a trombonist, recording artist, arranger, and educator. In 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006 he won the Down Beat Reader's Poll for best trombonist....
, Warren Vaché
Warren Vache
Warren Vaché is a jazz trumpeter, cornetist and flugelhornist born in Rahway, New Jersey. He came from a musical family as his father was a bassist. In 1976 he released his first album...
, Victor Goines
Victor Goines
Victor Goines is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist and received his Masters in Music at Virginia Commonwealth University. Goines is the director of jazz studies at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He previously served as first artistic director of the Juilliard School's jazz...
, Slide Hampton
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
, Joe Locke
Joe Locke
Joseph Paul Locke is a US American jazz vibraphonist, composer, recording artist and educator.-Biography:Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York...
, Eric Reed
Eric Reed
Eric Shane Reed is a Major League Baseball outfielder who is currently a free agent. He is an alumnus of Texas A&M University...
, Lew Soloff
Lew Soloff
Lew Soloff is a jazz trumpeter, composer and actor. He studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He is likely best known for his work with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 to 1973...
, Gary Smulyan
Gary Smulyan
Gary Smulyan is a jazz musician who plays baritone saxophone. He studied at SUNY before working with Woody Herman...
, and Frank Wess
Frank Wess
Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...
, giving students a chance to play alongside today's most exciting professional musicians.
Making Score
Making Score composition program is a series of workshops for young musicians to explore the world of composition and orchestration. Students under age 23 who have a sense of curiosity and a taste for musical adventure. It is directed by Kyle Blaha, who succeeded Anna ClyneAnna Clyne
Anna Clyne is a British-born composer, now resident in the USA. She has worked in both acoustic music and electro-acoustic music....
,four-time winner of ASCAP Plus award. The founding director was Derek Bermel
Derek Bermel
Derek Bermel is an American composer, clarinetist and conductor whose music blends various facets of world music, funk and jazz with largely classical performing forces and musical vocabulary...
.
Making Score's sessions are segmented into two distinct classes: Pre-college Division and Advanced Division. The sessions are conducted at two different times, designed to accommodate participants' skill level. Each division has eleven workshops held from November through June. The sessions explore the musical thought of a wide variety of composers, with a focus on orchestration. Examples are drawn from the vast classical and modern repertoire. Using tools such as study scores and orchestration books, the course aims to cultivate the students' own voices through class discussion, written exercises, and free composition."
Guest Lecturers include:
Laurie Anderson, violinist
Robert Beaser
Robert Beaser
Robert Beaser is an American composer.-Biography:Beaser was brought up in a non-musical family. His father was a physician and mother was a chemist. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts where he distinguished himself at a young age as a percussionist, composer and conductor...
, composer
Christopher Theofanidis, composer
Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...
, composer
Paquito D'Rivera
Paquito D'Rivera
Paquito D'Rivera is a Cuban alto saxophonist, clarinetist and soprano saxophonist. The winner of multiple Grammys and other awards, D'Rivera has lived in the United States since the early 1980s. He has worked in a variety of contexts, but is perhaps best known for playing Latin...
, jazz clarinet and saxophone
Ethel, string quartet
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly is a contemporary classical music composer, who has worked and recorded with classical and pop/rock musicians. He currently lives in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan in New York City.-Early years:...
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
John Corigliano
John Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...
, composer
Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, composer
Kathleen Supové, pianist
Alumni
Alumni include violinists Marin Alsop, Pamela Frank, Cho-Liang Lin, Shlomo Mintz, and Peter Oundjian; trumpeter Gerard Schwarz; flutist Ransom Wilson; and members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mendelssohn String Quartets, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony OrchestraLondon Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
, and other major ensembles throughout the world.
Reviews
The New York Times usually review the orchestra concerts. Here are statements from such reviews:The New York Sun has called the orchestra "America's best youth symphony."
Review of the 12/6/2010 performance at Carnegie Hall by a local pop culture blogger:
http://www.theheej.com/2010/12/06/new-york-youth-symphony/