Tours and Festivals

ESYO believes in music’s power to transcend boundaries and unite communities in shared celebration of the arts. In addition to the more than 30 public performances ESYO offers each season, it seeks unique opportunities for its members to engage in musical exchange, from local gatherings to international tours.

ESYO has hosted and participated in numerous musical festivals since its founding in 1979. These include Days of Percussion, Jazz ArtsFest, String Festivals, A Festival of Young Artists and, most recently, the World Association of Symphonic Band Ensemble Festival. ESYO Symphony Orchestra has had five international tours, with its most recent to Portugal in 2016. In 2018, the ESYO Wind Orchestra toured Hungary at the invitation of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.

ESYO Symphony Orchestra 2020: Argentina & Uruguay

We are excited to announce that ESYO Symphony Orchestra will be going on Tour to Argentina and Uruguay this summer! Eligible members will include 2019/2020 Symphony Orchestra members, ESYO alumni, and students from the Capital Region.

We know this will be an incredible journey, one that will afford our young musicians the opportunity to perform in outstanding halls and to engage in cultural exchanges with South American youth musicians during residencies and in side-by-side concerts.

Tour Dates: July 5 to July 16, 2020

SPAC Festival of Young Artists

In June 2018, ESYO collaborated with groups around the Capital Region to bring the collaborative creativity of more than 400 young musicians, singers, dancers, poets and visual artists to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It was a fantastic event that included performances by the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers from the Onondaga Nation, and local Native American author and storyteller, Joseph Bruchac.

Hungary 2018

ESYO Wind Orchestra toured for the first time in its history, August, 2018. At the invitation of Dr. Czikota Jozsef, President of the Eastern World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), the Wind Orchestra traveled to Mako to participate in the 2018 WASBE Music Festival. As Festival participants, the Wind Orchestra had the opportunity to perform and to hear outstanding ensembles from across the world, engaging in a true cross-cultural exchange.  

Portugal 2016

In June of 2016, ESYO Symphony Orchestra traveled to Portugal, spending a day and a half in Torres Novas where a special Fourth of July BBQ was shared with the members of Orquestra Academica do Medio Tejo. The Symphony Orchestra engaged in workshops with the Orquestra, and finally presented a concert to benefit this fledgling youth orchestra program.  The final concert of the tour was shared with the Orquestra Sinfonica Juvenil, a premier youth orchestra in Lisbon. 

China & Korea 2012

In June of 2012, ESYO embarked on a first ever rour to Asia, performing several concerts in both China and Korea. 

Germany, Austria & the Czech Republic 2008

In 2008, ESYO Symphony Orchestra performed concerts in historic halls in Eisenach and Ilmenau, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; and Prague, Czech Republic.  Two of the four concerts were benefits:  proceeds from the Eisenach concert benefited the Deutsche Epilepsievereinigung (German Epilepsy Association); in Salzburg, the proceeds were donated to the Salzburger Hilfswerk, a local organization that provides a wide range of services including meals on wheels for seniors, support in nursing homes, day care centers, counseling and education programs for families, youth programs, and emergency contact services.

While in Ilmenau, ESYO musicians met and performed with members of a German youth orchestra. 

During the tour, the orchestra gave the German, Austrian, and Czech national premieres of A Bridge to Understanding, by composer and Juilliard professor Samuel Adler.  The piece, which was commissioned by ESYO, had its world premiere when the Symphony Orchestra performed it during ESYO’s March New Music Festival at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.  Dr. Adler traveled with the Symphony Orchestra on the European Tour.