by Robert Rollin
Last Saturday evening, May 5, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra presented its final concert of the season at Severance Hall under conductor Vinay Parameswaran. The evening’s highlight was 20th-century Polish composer Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra, a massive, three-movement piece that filled the stage with young musicians. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
A highlight of each Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra season is the concert featuring the annual concerto competition winner. On Saturday, May 5 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, trumpeter Charlie Jones will join his COYO colleagues in a performance of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto under the direction of Vinay Parameswaran. The program will also include Beethoven’s Overture to Coriolan, Danielpour’s Toward a Splendid City and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra. Tickets are available online.
A resident of Hinckley, Jones is a senior at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. The eighteen-year-old has been a member of COYO’s trumpet section since the 2015-16 season. In addition to his orchestra duties, he has played with the ensemble’s brass quintet since 2016. In the fall, Jones will be attending the New England Conservatory and studying trumpet performance with Steven Emery.
We caught up with Charlie Jones by telephone and began our conversation by asking him why he chose Haydn’s concerto.
by Timothy Robson
Those who have never heard a concert by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and their sibling organization, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, have been deprived of a very fine musical experience. Their recent concert at Severance Hall on Sunday, February 25, under their youthful new music director, Vinay Parameswaran, was again proof of the fine training that these young musicians receive from their own teachers as well as from their Cleveland Orchestra coaches. If anything, this concert improved upon past performances. [Read more…]
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra announces auditions for its 2018-19 season. Highlights of the upcoming 33rd season include three performances at Severance Hall, as well as concerts in the greater Cleveland community under the direction of Music Director Vinay Parameswaran. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“The members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus are some of the best kids in their high school choral programs,” COYC acting director Daniel Singer said during a recent conversation. “When they come into this group they tear into learning new repertoire and tackle a professional masterwork like the Te Deum that is not dumbed down for kids in any way. They thrive on that challenge.”
On Sunday, February 25 at 7:00 pm in Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus will come together for performances of Dvořák’s Te Deum featuring soprano Marian Vogel and baritone Brian Keith Johnson, and Hanson’s Song of Democracy. The concert, under the direction of Vinay Parameswaran, will also include Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1. Tickets are available online.
Singer, who is in his seventh year as Director of Music at University School, said that somehow, Dvořák’s Te Deum has stayed off his musical radar. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
With echoes of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony still lingering in the corners of Severance Hall from their elder ensemble’s concert on Thursday evening, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) made an impressive showing in works by Beethoven, Barber, and Prokofiev on Friday, December 1, marking the debut of their new conductor Vinay Parameswaran at the beginning of their 32nd season. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“When I was in middle and high school I played percussion in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and those six years were incredibly formative for me,” conductor Vinay Parameswaran said during a telephone interview. “It confirmed my love for classical music, and told me that I wanted to be around it in some capacity. It’s been nice coming back to those years in youth orchestra that meant so much to me.”
On Friday, December 1 at 8:00 pm at Severance Hall, Parameswaran will make his debut as music director and conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Tickets are available online.
Parameswaran, who also serves as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, said that he’s “had a blast” working with the young COYO musicians. “There’s so much talent in that group. The energy and enthusiasm they bring to this music is unparalleled. They’ve really grasped this repertoire, and I can’t wait to see them in action on Friday.” [Read more…]
by Timothy Robson
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra played an ambitious program of works by Joan Tower, Maurice Ravel, and Sergei Prokofiev at Severance Hall on Friday evening, May 12, the last concert of their 2016-17 season. It was a bittersweet occasion. Not only did the Orchestra bid farewell to a group of graduating seniors, but it was conductor Brett Mitchell’s 29th and final concert with COYO, marking the end of his four-year term as Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra before taking up duties as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“This concerto is unlike others — it exists on a different playing field,” Catharine Baek said about Maurice Ravel’s challenging Piano Concerto in G. On Friday, May 12 at 8:00 pm, Baek will make her Severance Hall debut as the soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, performing Ravel’s jazz-inspired work. The concert, under the direction of Brett Mitchell, will also include Joan Tower’s Made in America and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.
Baek, a junior at Willoughby South High School and a second-year member of COYO’s percussion section, earned the opportunity to perform the Ravel by winning the Orchestra’s annual concerto competition. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“I don’t know where four seasons went,” Brett Mitchell said by telephone. On Friday, May 12 at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Mitchell will conduct his final concert as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra before relocating to Denver to become music director of the Colorado Symphony. The program will include works by Joan Tower, Sergei Prokofiev, and Maurice Ravel.
Friday’s concert will be performance number 29 for Mitchell. He said there is something to be proud of in all of them, although the accomplishment of which he is most proud goes beyond the music. “It is the sense of family that we have built. What I find most rewarding is when I compliment someone or a section during rehearsal, the automatic response from the rest of the orchestra is to shuffle their feet and cheer.” [Read more…]