The Youth Orchestra is our most advanced orchestra and is reserved for players whose technical skills and musicality are at the highest level. The orchestra receives regular professional coaching and performs in the finest concert halls, including the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Fisher Center at Bard College, and Carnegie Hall. The Youth Orchestra has undertaken four international tours, most recently in April 2008. Traveling to Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic, the orchestra performed the European premieres of Samuel Adler’s A Bridge to Understanding. This piece was commissioned by ESYO for its March 2008 New Music for a New Generation Festival.
In April 2009, the Youth Orchestra performed with the Empire State Youth Chorale and the Central City Chorus at the famed Riverside Church in New York City.
Every year the orchestra performs in Melodies of Christmas, CBS 6′s popular holiday program that has raised $6 million for the Child Cancer Program at the Albany Medical Center. A fall rehearsal weekend in the Catskills, an annual young people’s concert, a free concert for senior citizens, and a concerto competition round out the program.
For 2013-14, rehearsals will be held on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. at The Brown School unless otherwise noted.
Entrance auditions are held in June.
