by Kevin McLaughlin | ClevelandClassical.com
by This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus filled Mandel Concert Hall on February 22 with music that asks for breadth of sound and steadiness of purpose. Under the direction of James Feddeck, the young musicians took on three grand and optimistic works: Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, “Organ,” Antonín Dvořák’s Te Deum, and Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy. They met them well and, at key moments, with real poise.
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“The first time I heard the Fauré 
What are the duties of an assistant conductor of a major orchestra? “Every day is an experience,” Daniel Reith said during a recent telephone conversation. Since assuming that position with The Cleveland Orchestra this season, Reith has had a lot on his plate. In addition to his involvement with numerous educational activities, he has led the Orchestra’s family concerts and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert. Earlier this month he stepped in on very short notice for an ailing Klaus Mäkelä to lead three subscription concert performances.
An immigrant mother, struggling with her sense of identity, makes a plea to her new homeland in the hopes that her newborn daughter will have an easier time navigating it. This sentiment, presented in musical form, was especially fitting for a concert on Mother’s Day — not to mention one with a high percentage of mothers in the audience.
It came as no surprise that the March 1 Severance Hall concert by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Youth Chorus was an excellent affair. Leading fine performances of music mostly off the beaten track, conductor Vinay Parameswaran helped prove that gloomy predictions of classical music performance fading into oblivion are misplaced. The audience was large and enthusiastic — I suspect with many rightfully proud family members.
