- Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra
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The Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) is a youth orchestra in Milwaukee. This is MYSO's 54th year of offering highest level of training in ensemble musicianship to motivated young people from diverse backgrounds across southeastern Wisconsin.
Students with varied levels of instrumental skills benefit from the broad range of MYSO experiences, all created to foster talent, build character and enhance lives by nurturing an enduring love of music.
Contents
Senior Symphony
MYSO’s flagship ensemble, this 130-member symphony orchestra of advanced musicians presents major concerts, each season including a concerto performance by a renowned soloist and a celebrated choral work.
The very accomplished musicians in the Senior Symphony have undertaken several domestic and international tours. Most students in this group are in grades 10-12.
The Senior Symphony has achieved an enviable international reputation for excellence.
In June 2000, the Senior Symphony had a highly successful trip to the National Youth Orchestra Festival in Sarasota, Florida as one of only five invited youth orchestras. In spring 1999, the orchestra performed in Montreal,Quebec, Canada.
The most recent international tour was completed last summer (2009) when the Senior Symphony went to Canada. Previously, their "Beijing and Beyond" tour through China. Before that, their last international tour was in July 1997, when MYSO performed in Spain and Italy. In June 2000, the Senior Symphony had a highly successful trip to the National Youth Orchestra Festival in Sarasota, Florida as one of only five invited youth orchestras. In spring 1999, the orchestra performed in Montreal,Quebec, Canada.
In 1994, the 114-member Senior Symphony performed before a near-capacity audience in New York's legendary Carnegie Hall. In 1991, MYSO represented the United States at the Aberdeen (Scotland) International Youth Festival of the Performing Arts, with additional performances in Edinburgh and Glasgow. They returned with a number of formal and informal awards for solo, chamber ensemble, and orchestral achievement.
In 1987, they traveled to Switzerland, France, and Austria, where their performances were extremely well-attended and widely hailed for their superb quality.
Ms. Margery Deutsch has been the conductor and music director of MYSO’s Senior Symphony since 1987 and Mr. Shelby Dixon has been a MYSO conductor since 1984.
Philharmonia
MYSO’s second symphony orchestra, numbering 140 members, participates in a curriculum that introduces the major styles and national flavors of symphonic literature. This ensemble plays a wide variety of challenging original works. Most students in this group are in grades 9-12.
Beginning his 43rd season with MYSO, Ron Melby serves as a Music Director of Philharmonia. Mr. Melby taught in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District for 32 years and retired as orchestra director at Nathan Hale High School in 1995. He served on the staff of the Wisconsin High School Honors Orchestra for two years and directed at the first National Youth Orchestra Festival in Washington DC in 1977.
Mr. Melby received his BMusEd degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and has graduate credits in String Development and Music Education from that institution, as well. His education also includes summer institute study with Shinichi Suzuki, George Bornhoff and Paul Roland. In 1993, Mr. Melby received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association/Wisconsin String Teachers Association. In 2002 Mr. Melby was honored by the Civic Music Association with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Carter Simmons serves the MYSO organization as Director of Artistic Education and Resident Conductor. He conducts the Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia and the Junior Symphony Orchestra, and regards his interaction with these young musicians to be an honor and privilege. Since joining the staff in 1992, he has conducted several regional orchestras and served as a clinician in both Wisconsin and Illinois. He has worked with the MSO and has spoken on the subject of programming for the American Symphony Orchestra League.
Carter was President of the Board of Directors of Milwaukee's Civic Music Association and, with many others, helped design and oversee the creation of the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. As part of his education, he participated in conducting seminars of both the Conductor's Guild and the American Symphony Orchestra League and was a finalist for the National Conducting Institute of the National Symphony Orchestra.
He received his B.M. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Horn Performance, and his M.M. in Conducting from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he was a graduate assistant in the school's band department and a conductor of the UWMYWE program. Carter, is a native of Virginia and North Carolina and received his earliest musical training from members of the Washington, D.C. military bands.
Sinfonia
MYSO's 120-member third symphony orchestra studies a wide variety of repertoire. In the spring, this ensemble is augmented by selected wind and percussion players from MYSO’s Junior Wind Ensemble.
Most students in this group are in grades 6-9.
In the spring, the top wind, brass, and percussion players from Junior Wind Ensemble are invited to join the string players of the Sinfonia to make a full orchestra called the Junior Symphony Orchestra.
This ensemble performs on the same MYSO Spring Concert as the Junior Wind Ensemble.
Steven Rindt received the WFMR Allegro Award in 2005. WFMR salutes the Milwaukee area's dedicated mentors of music with a new and special award - The WFMR Allegro Award, honoring the best of this region's music educators from private, parochial, or public schools.
These teachers instill the love and passion of music that is so important in our world today to our young people. The public was invited to nominate the teacher who they thought deserves the first annual Allegro Award.
Chamber Orchestra
MYSO's Chamber Orchestra consists of select members of the Senior Symphony. There are only a few strings on each part, and in the band it is only one or two on each part, because the music they play does not require a large orchestra. This group is conducted by Mr. Carter Simmons.
External links
Categories:- Youth orchestras
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