- Empire State Youth Orchestra
Infobox musical artist
Name = Empire State Youth Orchestra
Img_capt = The Empire State Youth Orchestra performing at Carnegie Hall
Background = classical_ensemble
Origin = flagicon|USACapital District ,New York ,United States
Genre = Classical
Occupation =Symphony orchestra
Years_active = 1979-"present"
URL = [http://www.esyo.org/]
Current_members = Music DirectorHelen Cha-Pyo The Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) was founded in 1979 by a group of dedicated parents and music educators. Based in
Albany, New York , the orchestra is composed of talented and musically advanced high school students from New York State, western Massachusetts, and southern Vermont. The orchestra is considered one of the premier youth orchestras in the United States, and regularly performs concerts at theTroy Savings Bank Music Hall , Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center,Carnegie Hall andAlice Tully Hall in New York City. To date, the orchestra has undertaken four international tours, traveling to Austria and Hungary in 1989, to Spain in 1994, to Germany and the Czech Republic in 2000 and most recently to Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria in 2008. This 2008 tour was particularly distinguished as the Youth Orchestra premiered American composer, Samuel Adler's piece "A Bridge to Understanding"- a piece that Adler was commisioned to compose by the Youth Orchestra's director Helen Cha-Pyo.Helen Cha-Pyo has served as Music Director and Conductor of the orchestra since September 2002.The ESYO organization consists of two full orchestra (the advanced Youth Orchestra and the intermediate Repertory Orchestra), a Wind Orchestra, a String Ensemble, two Jazz Ensembles, three Percussion Ensembles, along with a City Strings Training Program.
ESYO holds an annual fundraiser at
Crossgates Mall . The Youth Orchestra also performs an annual series of holiday concerts atProctor's Theatre known as the "Melodies of Christmas" which support the Center for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at the Children's Hospital atAlbany Medical Center .In June 2008, Empire State Youth Orchestra won the first prize for Adventurous Programing from League of American Orchestra's Award, and also the Award for American Programming on Foreign Tour from The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), which is an award seldom granted, save to a Youth Orchestra.
Alumni
Ken Olsen-
Cello
David Odenkirchen- HornStefon Harris -Percussion Previous conductors of the orchestra have included
Victoria Bond ,Eiji Oue ,Paavo Järvi ,Francisco Noya ,Jin Kim , andBurton Kaplan .Current condcutor of the orchestraHelen Cha-Pyo External links
*http://www.esyo.org
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