“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” – Henry David Thoreau.
Watch the faces of the 400+ student musicians of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio (YOSA) as they masterfully play their musical instruments while performing classical music masterpieces, and you can see this invincibility in their expressions.
It is clear that these studentsare very serious about music, and yet they don’t fit into any one mold.
They range in age from 8 to 21, with the majority 11 to 18, and more than half represent minority demographic groups. They attend public, private and home schools in 19 school districts in Bexar and other surrounding counties, including Atascosa, Comal, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Kerr, Medina, Uvalde and Wilson.
These are normal, well–rounded teenagers who have multiple interests outside of classical music. Besides being involved in everything from academic honor societies to sports to church groups to photography, many of them have other musical interests other than the instrument they have perfected for their YOSA ensembles, including rap and jazz.
One thing that does ring clear for all YOSA musiciansis that they love to perform. In May, they will have many chances to do just that as they wrap up their 2007–2008 season with three outstanding concerts, including a side–by–side performance with the San Antonio Symphony and a concert in Brackenridge Park.
The first May concert will be held on Sunday, May 4, at 4 p.m. at the Watson Theater at St. Philip’s College. All of the music to be performed was originally written for the ballet, so they are full of exciting drama and rhythm. Beautiful selections from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, Manuel DeFalla’s, Three Cornered Hat, and excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite will be performed as our Philharmonic Orchestra concludes its Gold Series. The concert, generously sponsored by H–E–B, is free for students and only $15 for adults.
Secondly, YOSA’s Philharmonic Orchestra will present aside–by–side extravaganza with the San Antonio Symphony on Sunday, May 11, at 2:30 p.m. at the Laurie Auditorium at Trinity University as part of the Interactive Family Concert series. Both orchestras will perform music which breathes life into the Texas Library Association Bluebonnet–award nominated book, Ballet of the Elephants by Leda Schubert. The performance will be conducted and narrated jointly by San Antonio Symphony Resident Conductor Ken David Masur, and YOSA’s principal conductor Marlon Chen. There is no admission fee.
The Spring Finale in the Park will be held on Sunday, May 18, at 3 p.m. at the Koehler Pavilion in Brackenridge Park. Music and nature lovers will enjoy a wide variety of music from YOSA’s Prelude Strings, Capriccio Strings, Sinfonietta Strings, and Symphony Orchestra. This year–end outdoor gala is free and open to the public; guests are welcome to bring their own refreshments (no glass bottles or alcohol are allowed). YOSA’s three string orchestras will perform arange of varied music from the Koala Can–Can, The Wild Western Frontier and Telemann’s Sinfonia, to music from the movies such as The Prince of Egypt, Star Wars and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. The Symphony Orchestra will perform selections from Verdi’s Grande Marche Aida, the Force of Destiny Overture and Kabalevsky’s self–named Kabalevsky Suite.
YOSA sponsors a variety of programs that provide the highest level of ensemble music training for talented young artists from beginner to pre–professional, including five regular ensembles (two full orchestras and three string orchestras), a chamber orchestra, a free beginning strings outreach program, and a two-week strings summer camp. Its mission is to enable every young person to learn a musical instrument and realize their talent through orchestral music education and performance to the full extent of their ability. More than half of the revenue supporting YOSA’s music programs is derived from donations and grants.
