National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America

History

Perhaps the last national youth orchestra in the United States was the short-lived All-American Youth Orchestra, established by maestro Leopold Stokowski in 1940 before disbanding in 1942.

In January 2012 Carnegie Hall announced the launch of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA). The orchestra was created by Weill Music Institute, the hall’s music education and community outreach wing. The NYO-USA was set up along broadly similar lines to the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Since becoming Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall in 2005, British-born Sir Clive Gillinson, who himself participated in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, expressed disbelief that there was not a national youth orchestra in America and worked with colleagues and stakeholders to establish one.

Organization and Administration

Supported by a faculty of principal players from professional American orchestras, the musicians' preparation during NYO-USA’s residency is overseen by the orchestra director. The current orchestra director is James E. Ross.

The NYO-USA has no permanent music director and instead will be led by a different renowned conductor each summer. The inaugural guest conductor is Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.

Orchestra Membership and Activities

The NYO-USA is a full symphony orchestra consisting of around 120 young musicians. Depending on the repertoire for the season it may or may not include harpists and orchestral keyboardists.

Membership to the orchestra changes each year with an annual application and audition process.

Eligibility

To apply to join the NYO-USA, applicants must be between the ages of 16 and 19 years old during the summer of participation (e.g. for the 2014 season, applicants’ birthdays must fall between July 1, 1994, and June 30, 1998). Additionally, applicants must be United States citizens or permanent residents who are not enrolled full-time in a college-level conservatory or music department on an instrumental performance major.

Applications and Auditions

Applications to join the NYO-USA are made online between the August and November preceding the summer of participation, and include a brief biographical essay, two recommendations and an audition video including a piece of choice and several excerpts. The audition video must also include spoken (biographical, motivational) sequences.

Applicants may apply more than once in any one year by submitting applications for more than one instrument (excluding instrument sub-family combinations such as piccolo and flute), but respective full applications have to be made.

Former members of the NYO-USA may apply to rejoin as long as the eligibility criteria, above, are met.

2013

The musicians of the inaugural NYO-USA came together on the campus of Purchase College for an intensive week of rehearsals to prepare the tour program. Instrumental faculty joined the young players for a side-by-side rehearsal early in the week, as Orchestra Director James Ross filled the self-described role of “surrogate father” to the orchestra, working to build a strong sense of ensemble and equip the players with the flexibility to respond to Valery Gergiev’s direction in just 10 days’ time. Outside of full orchestra and sectional rehearsals devoted to the tour program (Sean Shepherd’s new work for NYO-USA, Magiya; Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10), the residency offered a range of workshops and seminars. Topics included an introduction to the Feldenkrais Method, composing, conducting, musical improvisation, engaging audiences, yoga for musicians, and the cultural history of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The extraordinary instrumental faculty assembled for NYO-USA also offered a master class to the members of their respective sections and participated in an evening of chamber music reading and coaching.

July 4 was highlighted by a cookout for the orchestra and staff, and a few days later, NYO-USA enjoyed a day of sightseeing and music in New York City. Groups of musicians toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National September 11 Memorial, Central Park, and Times Square before gathering at Avery Fisher Hall for a New York Philharmonic performance and a post-concert panel discussion with members of the orchestra about touring and life as a professional musician. A Hudson River boat cruise and impromptu on-deck dance party capped a memorable day off for NYO-USA.

The second week of NYO-USA saw the arrival of maestro Valery Gergiev and soloist Joshua Bell for their first rehearsals with the orchestra, leading up to NYO-USA’s debut concert at Purchase College’s Performing Arts Center. Two nights later, the orchestra’s tour began with a sold-out performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The musicians then embarked on an international journey that took them to Russia for concerts at the historic Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the newly opened Mariinsky II in St. Petersburg, culminating in a performance at Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the BBC Proms.

2014

The second summer of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America was an opportunity to introduce the orchestra to its home audience in a coast-to-coast tour featuring two of America’s leading musicians, conductor David Robertson and violinist Gil Shaham. It also saw the debut of NYO-USA in its home venue at Carnegie Hall, in front of a full house and as part of WQXR / America Public Media’s Carnegie Hall Live radio broadcast series. This 2014 program featured not only two spectacular showpieces for the orchestra (Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition) but also the deeply moving Violin Concerto of Benjamin Britten and a new work written for NYO-USA—Radial Play by young American composer Samuel Adams.

Orchestra Director James Ross returned to prepare the orchestra during its residency at Purchase College, SUNY, and a group of new and returning faculty members from the top US orchestras were again on hand to provide expert coaching to NYO-USA’s 120 players, 24 of whom were veterans of the inaugural year. A highlight of the residency was a live taping of NPR’s hit radio show From the Tops, hosted by Christopher O’Riley and featuring the full orchestra and several of its members in performances and interviews. Each instrument section also introduced itself to the world with a video devised by and featuring its members, while the entire orchestra recorded three web-exclusive performance videos with a distinctly American flavor. NYO-USA’s tour took it from Tanglewood in Massachusetts’s Berkshires to Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, with stops in Boone, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and Sonoma, California. (Please see below for full concert details.) Along the way, the players had the chance to visit a North Carolina blueberry festival, embark on an architectural river cruise of Chicago, hike in Grand Teton National Park, and see the sights of San Francisco. Each concert featured two different members of NYO-USA helping to introduce the program with personal remarks from the stage—a new element that was very well received by the orchestra’s audiences.

Another special focus for NYO-USA in 2014 was community and young-musician engagement. After some preparation during the training residency, players participated in three events that involved interactive performances, side-by-side music making, and mini-workshops for groups of young people in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Partnering with New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, NYO-USA and the Weill Music Institute’s Community Programs team invited children from the shelter system to Carnegie Hall to meet and hear NYO-USA on the stage of Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. NYO-USA musicians later collaborated with players from four El Sistema–inspired programs in the Bay Area in a seminario at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco that included a pop-up concert in its iconic rotunda. On the final day of the tour, NYO-USA visited the Hollywood Bowl and worked side-by-side with young musicians from Los Angeles, including members of the El Sistema–inspired YOLA (Youth Orchestra LA).

2015

The members of NYO-USA spend the first two weeks of each season on the campus of Purchase College, SUNY. Located in Westchester County just north of New York City, Purchase College has outstanding rehearsal, performance, and residential facilities, including a highly regarded performing arts center that will be the center of musical activities during the residency. The residency includes sectional and full orchestral rehearsals, workshops on musical and non-musical topics designed to complement the focus on tour repertoire, and social/recreational activities, capped by a performance in the concert hall.

The tour is preceded by the orchestra's Carnegie Hall performance, which will be heard by music lovers worldwide via the Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series, created in partnership with WQXR and the WFMT Radio Network. NYO-USA will then embark on a seven-city concert tour of China, visiting its most important music centers as one of the newly designated Cultural Pillars of the US-China Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE).