by Mike Telin
In a celebration of popular culture in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University on Saturday evening, December 12, music director Liza Grossman and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra offered up terrific performances of clever works by Leonard Bernstein, Michael Daugherty, and DeeJay Doc. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
The Contemporary Youth Orchestra will present the first concert of its 21st season on Saturday, December 12 at 7:00 pm in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University. “The orchestra is exceptionally strong this year and has a sense of maturity not just in their work ethic, which they have always had, but also in their technical ability,” CYO founder and Liza Grossman said during a telephone conversation. Grossman will lead her young musicians in Leonard Bernstein’s Mambo, Dee Jay Doc’s Trust-Belt City: Concerto for Turntable and Orchestra, and the centerpiece of Saturday’s program, Michael Daugherty’s Metropolis Symphony.
“I like Michael’s music very much and CYO has explored quite a bit of it, including movements from this symphony,” Grossman said, “but I wanted to wait for the right time to perform the entire symphony.” [Read more…]
by Jeremy Reynolds
Jogging onto the stage of Severance Hall, Liza Grossman wasted no time in launching the barefoot Contemporary Youth Orchestra and Chorus straight into the opening number of their annual “Rock the Orchestra” concert on Friday, June 5. After a slow, somber musical introduction from the students, singer-songwriter and philanthropist Graham Nash walked onstage, serenely and similarly unshod, to a standing ovation from listeners. He began GNASH — a concert celebrating his five-decade musical career — with a spirited rendition of “To the Last Whale” (Nash, David Crosby, 1975). [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“Kids are 25% of the population and 100% of our future,” the legendary Graham Nash said during a recent telephone conversation. “I think it’s one of those truths so simple to understand that it strikes the heart immediately.” On Friday, June 5 at 8:00 pm in Severance Hall, Liza Grossman will lead the 115-member Contemporary Youth Orchestra and 70-member chorus in GNASH, the first-ever concert devoted solely to Nash’s music with orchestra.
“A few years ago I did sing with CYO, but it was not an entire concert of my music,” Nash recalled. “I must tell you that I’m looking forward to the show.” It was Nash himself who came up with the concert’s unusual title, GNASH. “It always intrigued me that my first initial and my last name spells the word gnash, as in gnashing your teeth.” [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
NEOSonicFest planned a big agenda for its fourth concert at CSU’s Waetjen Auditorium on Tuesday, March 24. The Cleveland Chamber Symphony brought works by five “Young and Emerging Composers” to life under music director Steven Smith; Liza Grossman and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra reprised Stefan Podell’s Concerto for Two Violas and Orchestra with Lynne Ramsey and Jeffrey Irvine; and the two orchestras played side-by-side under Smith’s direction in a performance of Bernard Rands’ London Serenade to honor the memory of CCS founder Edwin London. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When NEOSonicFest presents its fourth concert on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30pm in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony (CCS) will pay tribute to its founder, the late Edwin London. The two-part musical evening will feature pieces by CCS’s 2015 Young and Emerging Composers competition winners, as well as a side-by-side performance with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) of Bernard Rands’ London Serenade.
“We’re very excited about this concert,” said CCS’s conductor and Festival music director Steven Smith. “For the first time we will join forces with CYO for a side-by-side performance. This will be one of the highlights of the Festival, because Bernard wrote his London Serenade for the Chamber Symphony. We’ve played it several times over the years, and, I think there’s something poignant about bringing the piece back to life alongside a new generation of players.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
This time of year there is a seemingly endless number of holiday concerts on the calendar. If you’re looking for something different, just for one evening, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra invites you to be part of their 20th anniversary celebration. On Saturday, December 20 at 7:00 pm in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University, Liza Grossman will lead the 120-member CYO Reunion Orchestra in a free concert featuring Igor Stravinsky’s “Berceuse” and “Finale” (Firebird Suite), Derek Snyder’s Sun Up, Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony, Gustav Holst’s “Mars” (The Planets) and Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2.
Grossman could not be more pleased with the fact that Saturday’s orchestra will include alumni representing each of CYO’s past nineteen seasons. “For the first time in our history alums are coming back for one magical night! There are a few charter members returning and I believe there will be at least one member from each season after that. Some people I haven’t seen in 18 years, but we’ll have nametags for everybody so we’ll know who is who. I think some of them may be older than I am by now!” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
For the past nineteen seasons, Liza Grossman has been inspiring young musicians to become enthused about contemporary music. On Sunday evening, December 7, in Cleveland State University’s Waetjen Auditorium, the fruits of her tireless labor were fully realized in a glorious concert that began the Contemporary Youth Orchestra’s twentieth anniversary season. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
We continue our preview of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra’s concert on Sunday, December 7 at 7:00 pm in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University, with a conversation with Stefan Podell, whose Concerto for Two Violas and Orchestra, will receive its premiere that evening with Lynne Ramsey and Jeffrey Irvine as soloists.
Stefan Podell has been arranging music for CYO since 2009. He has created works for artists such as Jon Anderson of YES, Jefferson Starship, Evelyn Glennie, and Sean Beasson. As a songwriter and musician, he has won awards from the likes of Billboard Magazine and VH-1. He has shared the stage with performers such as Cheap Trick, Barenaked Ladies, and Dishwalla. The Concerto for Two Violas is Podell’s second CYO concerto commission: his Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra was premiered by CYO and Cleveland Orchestra Principal Bass Maximilian Dimoff in the fall of 2012.
Stefan and I got together for lunch following Saturday’s CYO rehearsal. We talked about the important role CYO has played in the development of his career and how the music of Jon Anderson and the band YES helped inspire him to pursue classical music. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Since its founding, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra has given world premieres of over two hundred works, and this weekend’s concert is no exception. On Sunday, December 7 at 7:00 pm in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University, CYO will begin its twentieth anniversary season with a concert honoring composer Bernard Rands.
The program will include Rands’ London Serenade and Danza Petrificada as well as the world premiere of his Music for Liza and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra: Theme for CYO. Richard Hill and Chris Barber’s Concerto for Jazz Trombone and Orchestra will feature CYO concerto competition winner Rachel Waterbury as soloist.
The evening will also present the world premiere of Stefan Podell’s Concerto for Two Violas and Orchestra featuring Lynne Ramsey, First Assistant Principal Viola of The Cleveland Orchestra, and Jeffrey Irvine, Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Viola at the Cleveland Institute of Music.