Best Youth Orchestra in USA
Hello,
I was just wondering what anyone's opion of the best youth orchestras in the USA were. I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions!
Replies (98)
california youth symphony
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is really fantastic.
Any good ones near central PA? The major one here is Harrisburg Youth Symphony (HYSO)
Atlanta, New York, Chicago. All of them are good.
Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra in Ohio. I admit I'm a little biased having played in this orchestra during high school...
I don't know about HYSO being the best youth orch....LOL, i'm in it!!! haha philly youth orch is pretty good though, and New york youth, which i also play in.
Anyone here from rochester? if so, what do you think of RPYO?
how about the international orchestra? which one is good?
Hey fiddle nerd, Philly Youth is pretty good ;) Was in it last year, met and played with Sarah Chang...twas an awesome experience!
The Greater Denton Youth Orchestra Rocks! Blows all other orchestras out of the water!
Rochester would have to be the essential orchestra, as it's an anagram of German "orchester" ;)
Governor's School for the Arts in Virginia!!!
(Although I am in the orchestra).. but we've done Petrushka last year.. and we're doing Scherazade right now..
And not too long ago we worked with JoAnn Falletta - the music director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
We also have A LOT of masterclasses with the Miami String Quartet, Chiaro, and many well known musicians. A few years back, Issac Stern came in and worked with the orchestra and the players.
Let's not forget the west coast: Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra is pretty amazing, and is also one of the biggest organizations (with 5 orchestras and its own summer festival). Portland Youth Philharmonic is the nation's oldest youth orchestra, and is very good as well!
Funny, everyone seems to be nominating his or her OWN youth orchestra. :)
I would have to second the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. (I've never played in it either!)
What about the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra? (PYSO) Anybody like them?
LOL, Lisa, agreed!! hahahaha this is hilarious
Tacoma Youth Symphony hands down. It's bigger than it's rival Seattle and better, it has 7 groups, two ensembles, several chamber groups, theory, and summer programs. Not only that but it was ranked by people at Carnegie as among the top 4 in the nation.
yeah, I'm in the minnesota youth symphonies and it is definitely the best ever.
Just kidding, but i was wondering if anybody has every heard of it before.
The Greater Boston Youth Symphony is fantastic!!
haha, Annie, try telling a SYSO member that Tacoma is better and see what they say! I myself can't make judgement as I haven't heard Tacoma in performance.
How dare you make such a statement! Seattle Youth Symphony is so much better than Tacoma :-P even though Tacoma is going to Carnegie Hall this year :-\. How about instead of nominating orchestras... tell what they are playing. I'm sure there'll be controversy upon "quality" but if a conductor picks a piece i'm quite sure he/she assumes the orchestra can play it to a reasonable extent.
SYSO this season is playing the entire Tchaik Symphony 5, Flying Dutchman, and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Mvt. 3, and we just finished the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and Sorcerors Apprentice.
Too bad I sit last chair :-P to represent anything... but seating auditions this tuesday.... must practice!
Tacoma youth just did Tchaikovksy 5 completely and rhumanina rhapsody and for carnegie we're doing tenderland suite and firebird...and no syso is not better, not only do they have less groups but the top conductor is apparently very creeping and there are soo many bad politics in the groups...TYSA boo ya! Anyway..
I still have to say the Governor's School in Virginia... It's EXTREMELY competitive to get into the program all together.
Also, the Starling Chamber Orchestra is flawless... They have excellent players.
I've played in the Sacramento Youth Symphony for 4 years; this is my 5th season, and I'm a 1st violinist in the Premier orchestra. It is audition-based; we have 3 orchestras (Junior, Academic, Premier) and two chamber music programs (one summer, one winter).
This season I know we're playing/we've played the Enigma variations, and Romeo/Juliet Overture, 1812 Overture, Beethoven's Eroica, Beethoven piano concerto no.3, Russlan and Ludmilla overture, and others.
In the past I know the Premier orchestra has played the Moldau, Mahler 1, might have played Brahms 1 (not sure about that one), Beethoven 5 and 6, Penderecki "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima," Shostakovich cello concerto, Beethoven violin concerto, Schumann piano concerto, Rachmaninoff symphony 2, Capriccio Espagnole, and much more...
I don't profess the Sacramento Youth Symphony to be the best, but it's certainly very very very good (Ok, I admit, I think it's awesome :-D).
http://www.sacys.org
I have a friend who plays violin in the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra.
Haha annie where do you get these ideas? Actually, Huw Edwards (top conductor) is VERY awesome, except he sings a little high (it's kinda wierd... Harmonic E on the E string high) but he is easily the best conductor I've ever played with ... funny too. Don't know about the politics thing you were talking... i mean there is a bit, but there's always some "politics" in this crazy competition filled world. Whatever. We'll consider ourselves neck and neck then, deal? Haha, cheers
- Wenhao Sun
Yeah, I'm actually a SYSO member myself (and I too am practicing for Saturday's auditions). I have to say that Huw Edwards is one of the finest conductors I've played under; he's so imaginative and is able to clearly convey the complexity and details of great orchestral works to us. And it's a lot of fun; even though it means sacrificing 5 hours of a saturday, it keeps me inspired. As for politics, I haven't been in the orchestra long enough to say anything for sure, but it doesn't seem too bad to me, at least in comparison to other youth orchestras I've played in. Of course, it IS quite hard to get into the top orchestra.. but that's not really political now is it?
my friend used to be in RPYO, u know john nam and christine cho? of course you do
I've heard the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony (I use to live near the Burgh). They're a very good group of young musicians.
I wouldn't go so far as to say the Starling Chamber orchestra is flawless....
The Chicago Youth Orchestras are excellent indeed!
I'm referring the some politics involving some cello players. cough cough. anyway, I'm just saying what I've heard about some things, the point is...we all live close to eachother, what teachers do you study with? *cough tysa is best cough*
New York Youth Symphony is a really amazing orchestra too. I'm in it... We play a variety of reperatoire, have famous soloists (like Glenn Dicterow coming up in December!) and play at Carnegie Hall three times a year. It costs nothing to be in. Although the audition excerpts are tough. This year they came from Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra fast chromatic passages and the like. Some of the toughest pieces we've played include Mahler 5, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Wagner overature to Tanhausser. We are featured on WQXR's Young Artists showcase as well.
However I think it is impossible for us to all be saying our orchestra is the best in the country when we haven't heard the others :)
Wow. Sounds like you guys have syso beat.
Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra is the best in the Southeast, and I'm sure the ASYO is probably one of the better orchestras in the U.S.
san diego youth symphony :)
Does Interlochen count? We rehearse for 2 hours 4 days a week and we are technically a youth orchestra I guess. Plus we play some hard music. Example: Our last concert we played Shostakovich 5th symphony and Corigliano Clarinet Concerto. So if we count as a "youth orchestra" even though we're a high school orchestra, let me know.
Matt
Greater Boston Youth Symphony!!!
I'm going to put in a vote for the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Boston. I've been in it for 3 years, and our pieces(excluding concertos) have included Petrouchka and Brahms 2La Valse, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis, Franck Symphony in D minor, Mahler's 3rd symphony( :-D:-D , Ravel Rapsodie Espagnole and The Planets....this semester is pretty ridiculous, were doing the Rite of Spring and Don Quixote, and the two combined are giving us hell. I think it IS funny that we are all nominating our own orchestras, but its hard to usually hear a youth orchestra unless you live in teh city. Sorry for the shameless promotion!
How nice to hear Tacoma's doing so well! I played in that Youth Symphony in the mid sixties (I'm ooooold!) and it met in a church basement downtown. =^) I was just there for the summer program, and I loved it. We played Water Music that summer.
INTERLOCHEN ARTS ACADEMY.
We are youth and we are an orchestra, so we def count as a youth orchestra...
Only thing that sorta stinks is that most of our audience is either fellow Academy students that fall asleep during the concert or really old people that live in this area...
But IAA Orchestra rocks! yay:)
I vote for Cleveland Youth Orchestra ;)
Well, having been in quite a few, these are my picks:
American Youth Philharmonic (in Northern Virginia) is quite amazing
The Governor's School for the Arts (Virginia) is quite good, although very similar to other programs in numerous other states
World Youth Symphony Orchestra (Interlochen Arts Camp)- one of the best orchestras I've ever played in- I've never seen so many musicians that devoted to making things work
Chicago Youth Symphony- I've heard some unbelievable recordings that completely blow me away
Although I've never heard them perform, I've heard that the American Youth Symphony (in Los Angeles) is best on the West Coast.
For second place, I nominated the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Not only do we get to rehearse on Davies stage (come on, what other youth orchestra can make a claim like that?), we also get to work with people such as MTT, Yo-Yo Ma, Stern, Menuhin, Repin, Zukerman, Midori, Shaham, Vengerov, Rostropovich, etc. Last summer we got to perform in the Musikverein, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, and the Concertgebouw, to name a few places. I won't listing the repertoire because it doesn't really matter, in my opinion. Even my school orchestra can play something like the fourth movement of Shostakovich's Fifth. (I'm not saying we sounded good, mind you, but we made it through in one piece.)
Portland Junior Symphony (Portland, OR)
DAPA (dakota academy of performing arts), actually i wouldn't say the orchestra as a whole is really great, our first and second chair first violins are excellent players both going to cleveland institute of music and our principle cellist is really good too, actually our cello section is top notch. The third chair violinist is really good too, but there is a lot of favoritism in the orchestra being the majority of the orchestra is the main and secondary orchestra directors students on violin and viola (im not one of there students, i'm a senior so i wont be there next year and it's my first and last year with them so i get to play second violin even though they said i was good enough to play first, but oh well music is music although i left my last youth orch because of politics as well, hmmmm.
GO IAA!!!!!!!!!!!!YEAH!!!IAA ROCKS!!!!!!
This is so funny to just sit back and watch...
There is a great youth chamber orchestra in Houston called "Virtuosi of Houston." I'm trying out for it this year. They are going to Norway in the summer of 2006.
This IS hilarious! I must put my two cents in, though. I think that the Minnesota Youth Symphonies is a great orchestral program, especially the Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manny Laureano (principle trumpet for the MN Orchestra).
Interlochen Arts Academy or just so their heads don't get too big - the World Youth Symphony Orchestra during Interlochen Arts Camp.
"Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra is the best in the Southeast, and I'm sure the ASYO is probably one of the better orchestras in the U.S."
Um....Charlie, did you forget Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra (Orlando)? The one who's been touring all over the world?
Sorry, alum here.
As far as central PA goes, there's the York Youth Symphony (never heard them, though), the Hershey Symphony Festival Strings,an excellent 6th-9th grade group), and the HYSO. Festival Strings has been to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and Minneapolis for PMEA and MENC regional and national conventions. The HYSO is pretty good. I filled in for a few violinists for their last concert. We could have been better, but they're definitely the best around central PA!
Nice to see you on here, Arjun! :) You still playing with the Hershey Symphony?
Midwest young artists is really good too.
I would have to say the East Central Indiana Youth Symphony is the best in the world!
Just kidding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Something tells me some of us are biased...
Just a tad.
But hey, while we're at it, go ASYO! (Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra)
SLYSO: St.Louis Youth Symphony Orchestra!
Fresno Youth Symphony!!!! Actually....they weren't very good at all. We had some of the best brass players in the state but the strings have always been lacking and our woodwinds weren't that great either.
Yeah, I've heard of Minnesota Youth Symphonies, but that's because I'm in it!!! I'm in Symphony, which is really fun, and Manny is totally awesome!!!
Everyone thinks their orchestra great... I don't see youth orchestras being very good outside of major cities.
dang it, Pieter. I've been away for awhile and just now saw your response to my post in the "best violinists ever thread." If I didn't have my snooty aristocratic musical historian wig on, I'd challenge you to a duel.
I do have reasoning behind my comments about Sarasate vs. Beethoven et al though. Perhaps this thread isn't the best place to elaborate. But don't get me wrong, I love Sarasate too.
I'm always up for a duel, as long as there's tea and little sandwiches with no crust afterwards.
Hey. fiddle nerd... I am from rochester and the HSYO is pretty good... I go to hochstein also. I am auditioning for the RPYO next year... but Right now I am in the Finger Lakes Symphony.... Symphony power! :)
I have no idea what you're talking about, smaller city youth symphonies are always going to be better. The kids are much more scrappy.
The World Youth Symphony at Interlochen! =)
Minnesota Youth Symphonies rocks. We're playing Rite of Spring, Mahler 3, and Pines of Rome.
I don't know were in the US you are talking about, but in California, specifically the San Francisco Bay Area, unquestionably the best youth orchestra is the San Francisco Youth Symphony. Next I would say California Youth Symphony, Penninsula Youth Orchestra, El Camino Youth Symphony, San Jose Youth Symphony. As far as smaller emsebles go, The San Jose Youth Chamber orchestra is pretty good, and so is the Palo Alto Youth Chamber Orchestra.
KW
somebody earlier asked for international ones, so i have to put in a vote for my own orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales! The oldest National Youth Orchestra in the world! We recorded Elgar 2 this Easter and went on tour with mahler 5 in summer. This year we are gonna play in Lady Walton's garden in Ischia!
I play in the Greater BaltimoreYouth Orchestra and they are pretty good. I do not believe that we are the best youth orchestra in the US, but we are among the many good ones in the USA. Also, I think that the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra is awesome.
I am delighted to hear of so many youth orchestras, and nominations by their current or past players! GO team! What you have all played doesn't matter so much as and how it sounded,though,and there doesn't seem to be any easy sources for online samples/ concerts. Or are there? Sue
When I was a kid, Boston, San Francisco, Twin Cities were some of the best youth symphonies.
Claremont, Seattle, Portland, Chicago... all good.
I wouldn't call Interlochen a youth symphony, that's a conservatory orchestra like Juilliard pre-college or New England Conservatory prep.
Well, I have to make my plug for the Louisville Youth Orchestra. Not jsut because I am in it but I sincerely think we are one of the best, at least on this side of the country.
Boston Youth Philharmonic Orchestra!
What about the Empire State Youth Orchestra??
We played at Carnegie Hall last summer....Stravinsky Firebird Suite, Mozart's Overture to the Magic Flute.
Plus, it's not necessarily the level of the music that makes an orchestra good.
OK, not the best in the country, but still pretty good.
Um...what are we using to define as a 'good' youth orchestra? The education gleaned? The quality of performance? The prestigious name and association?
Depends on what you are looking for, need, and extract from the organization.
Also, as members of youth symphonies change every year (seniors graduate, younger players come in), it is hard to consider any youth orchestra the best based on performance, right? Maybe standard. What has the highest standard...to continue excellence of performance? That is the weird thing about youth orchestras. They aren't solid, set groups. Transition orchestras or for really advanced kids who want to be doctors or accountants....
In my experience as far as youth orchestras go, once again, it is an economic question.
But that's because I'm poor and bitter :)
Just kidding.
From lowly Tennessee...
Jennifer
I played in the Montgomery County Youth Orchestras -- Junior and Senior. I loved it! We played an incredible amount of repertoire. I got wonderful experience and training. I got to travel to Switzerland and Austria and participate in the First International Festival of Youth Orchestras. We had some very fine musicians in the orchestras. Some of them, including myself, went on to become professional, and there are quite a few who play in leading orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The Senior Youth Orchestra was conducted by Chester J. Petranek. I have nothing but the highest praise for Mr. Petranek! He was absolutely wonderful!!!
AHHHH OH MAN! ^I play for the Montgomery County Youth Orchestra (now Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra). Gutoff just retired, and now we're getting a new conductor for Phil. next year.
Annual National Festival Orchestra, with Ben Zander, hands down is the best youth orchestra there is. I don't think any other youth orchestra can pull off Tchaikovsky's Fifth in three days. Plus, Carnegie Hall can't hurt.
Tiffany,
That's great that you play in the Montgomery County Youth Orchestra! I've heard good things about Gutoff too, but Mr. Petranek was just incredible. A fabulous musician, a great teacher, and just a very wonderful person and friend and a great inspiration to all musicians who played under him. Ben Zander has a very fine reputation too! I saw him being interviewed once on 60 Minutes. He was full of energy and very zany, and I'm sure he is a lot of fun to work with. Good luck to you!!
I don't know these days, but when I was in the SFSYO (under Alasdair Neale) 14 years ago, our recording of Mahler 5 was met with critical acclaim alongside professional symphonies, our "Rite of Spring" performance got rave reviews from the chronicle, and our performance of Bartok "Miraculous Mandarin" and Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto got 4 standing ovations at the Concertgebouw...I thought we were pretty good.
I've changed my mind. It's the St Louis Symphony Orchestra. I'm older than most of them so that makes them youths in my mind.
Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra as someone else had said, but I have to say, Cleveland Youth Symphony Orchestra is amazing as well.
OMG! I'm in the Minnesota youth symphonies too! (and duh we are the best)
the rite of spring was awesome guys!
Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra
http://gdyo.org/mp3s.cfm
listen for yourself...
this year they played sibelius 1 and tchaik 5 in the spring
http://www.mnyouthsymphonies.org/images/auditions/MYSSym.mp3
excerpt of the rite of spring by the minnesota youth symphony
You don't have be taking lessons at the conservatory to be a member of the orchestra, so my vote is NEC Youth Philharmonic led by Benjamin Zander. Although if I remove my own bias, I've heard the san francisco youth symphony play and I think they are quite good. Oh yea, New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic > GBYSO =)
What would be fun would be if someone created a Web-based blind test to allow people to compare two randomly chosen excerpts from a database of youth orchestra performances. Kittenwar.com for youth orchestras.
We can settle this question, I'm sure. And they should give credit to Violinist.com for sparking the idea, too. :-)
I was thinking the same thing, Bill. We could also see if people could spot a top notch YO from professional ones.
New England Conservatory YPO
(Youth Philharmonic Orchestra)
Hey, I've read all of your opinions and i have to say that SYSO (is that right?) has GREAT leadership and is AMAZING. I heard them when i was like 10, but still... they left a lasting impression. That was when i was living in Phoenix. Now I'm in Mobile,Al... our group is o.k., certainly not the best... we're doing a residency with Midori, but I'll have graduated by then :(has anybody worked with her?) Also We are touring Germany next summer: Frankfurt, Munich, Lepzeig, and Strasburg(Austria). We get around :P...oh, and New York has an excellent youth symphony because they're soooooo versatile. I think a good group is one that has an extnded and diverse repretoire and puts in a lot of blood and sweat, but that's just my opinion.But I'm gonna break away from the States and say that the best youth orchestra in the world is Tokyo Youth Orchestra. They rival many leading, first class, professional groups.
Midwest Young Artists they are great!
They have won some many Fishoffs that Ican't even keep count.
The New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra led by Benjamin Zander is the best youth orchestra in the US... I remember a reviewer saying that the Orchestra's Ein Heldenleben is the best ever recorded out of ANY orchestra...
What do you consider "youth" orchestra? The American Youth Symphony based in LA allows players up to age 27 to join. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra allows players up to age 21. Both are extremely solid, but both have players at a conservatory and professional level.
What the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra impresses me the most is the close connection between a major professional orchestra. I got more tickets to SF Symphony concerts from the Youth Orchestra then the SF Conservatory. And besides the mentoring from symphony members every week, I suspect it is one of the few youth orchestras that can invite people like MTT and Kurt Masur to conduct rehearsals.
[quote]What do you consider "youth" orchestra? The American Youth Symphony based in LA allows players up to age 27 to join. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra allows players up to age 21. Both are extremely solid, but both have players at a conservatory and professional level.[/quote]
Sorry, youth orchestras are really only age 18 and under (high school students)...
If AYS and SFSYO aren't youth orchestras, what do you call them?
Hey everyone. I'm in the Houston Youth. Our most recent concert was Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Even then, I still can't say we would place as top orchestra. I usually judge an orchestra based on how they communicate when playing music, since the sound doesn't come just like that.
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November 15, 2004 at 12:55 AM · I think CYCO (Chicago Youth Concert Orchestra) and CYSO (Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra) are one of the best youth orchestras.