2010-2011 Season

The Empire State Youth Orchestra, Inc., (ESYO) was founded in 1979 by Barry Richman. With colleagues Lois Lyman and Eleanor Barnes, Richman gathered a group of parents and music educators to organize an orchestra for the region's talented young musicians. For the first two seasons ESYO had only one ensemble – the Youth Orchestra.  Today, it’s an “umbrella” organization of nine ensembles comprising over 300 young musicians, as well as an instrument training program for low-income, inner-city students.  Performing groups are progressive in order to provide an opportunity for younger, less-experienced players to start in one group and (with successful auditions) move into the higher level groups. 

As a regional organization, ESYO attracts students from over 75 public and private schools throughout eastern New York State, western Massachusetts, and southern Vermont. Returning and potential members must pass a competitive audition for their positions.  ESYO students range in grade level from 4th through 12th.

The nine performing ensembles (2 full orchestras, a wind orchestra, a string orchestra, two jazz ensembles, and three percussion ensembles) rehearse weekly with professional musicians as conductors and coaches. A season's schedule includes over 30 public concerts and benefit performances, requiring over 600 hours of rehearsal time. The most advanced orchestra, the Youth Orchestra, regularly performs throughout the Capital Region, at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

ESYO's Youth Orchestra has undertaken four international tours, most recently in April 2008 to Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria. In June 2008, ESYO received the ASCAP Award for American Programming on Foreign Tours, a rarely awarded prize, for distinguishing itself in this category by featuring a program full of American music, including A Bridge to Understanding. This work was commissioned by ESYO from Dr. Samuel Adler, an American composer and professor of composition at Juilliard.  Dr. Adler traveled with the Youth Orchestra during the tour, and introduced his piece at each concert.

ESYO's artistic program also includes a rehearsal weekend in the Catskill Mountains every fall, an annual concerto competition for the Youth Orchestra, young people's concerts, a free concert for senior citizens, and many free concerts for the general public.

To ensure that our members are well versed, the repertoire includes both classical and contemporary music.  As resources permit, ESYO commissions new music, thus allowing our musicians the opportunity to participate in the creative process of bringing composers’ ideas from the score to the stage.  Our musicians have the invaluable opportunity of working with the composers during rehearsals. This commitment to presenting new music reached a pinnacle in the 2007-2008 season during ESYO’s New Music Festival, when nine commissioned works from separate composers were premiered, one by each of ESYO’s ensembles. The festival was funded in part by a $100,000 grant from the New York State Music Fund at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. ESYO has been recognized for its programming by ASCAP and the League of American Orchestras; in the spring of 2008, ESYO received first place in the youth orchestra division and was awarded the ASCAP Youth Orchestra Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music.

In addition to instructing its young players in music, ESYO provides them with opportunities to make positive contributions to society and experience the joy of using their talent to help others.  Several ESYO ensembles have brought their music directly to the Wildwood School through connections fostered by Time Warner Cable, a key community partner for ESYO (and a major concert sponsor).  The Youth Orchestra has helped raise $6 million for Albany Medical Center’s Child Cancer Program by performing each year in CBS 6’s Melodies of Christmas benefit concerts.

Through ESYO's City Instruments Training Program (City Strings and City Brass) in-school private music lessons are provided to low-income children who attend Albany, Schenectady, or Troy middle schools.  Many students have graduated from City Strings and been able to successfully audition for other ESYO ensembles.  As part of ESYO’s commitment to serving its community, the "City" students give recitals at nursing homes and senior centers.

Helen Cha-Pyo is in her ninth season as Music Director of the Empire State Youth Orchestra. Previous Music Directors, such as Victoria Bond, Eiji Oue, Paavo Järvi, and Francisco Noya, have gone on to illustrious, international conducting careers.

Almost 44% of ESYO’s annual budget is allocated to music education, including the cost of conductors, coaches, managers and teachers for our inner-city instrument training program.  The expenses associated with producing over 30 concerts per year represent about 15% of our budget. The remaining 41% covers administrative staff; office rent and supplies; telephone, postage, and insurance; development costs and so forth.

ESYO’s cost per student is about $2,000 on average, but our tuition charges range from $425 to $590 (most comparable youth orchestras in the country charge much more). Indeed, tuition and fees paid by member families cover about 30% of ESYO’s annual costs and ticket sales account for about 20%. The remaining 50% is raised through a fall gala, a winter Playathon fundraiser, a direct mail appeal, and generous corporate sponsors and foundation donors.  

The Empire State Youth Orchestra, Inc. is a not-for-profit [501(c)(3)] organization supported by public and private funding and governed by a volunteer Board of Directors.       
                                     

A Year in the Life of an ESYO Musician

Who hasn’t heard the joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall? The answer—practice, practice, practice—is just what ESYO musicians do! With guidance from their school and private music teachers, and under the direction of their ESYO conductors and coaches, they work, work, work, practice, practice, practice. When they reach the Youth Orchestra, they may well “go to Carnegie Hall.”

All of ESYO’s nine performing ensembles rehearse weekly for several hours under the direction of their professional conductors. A season, September through early June is divided into “concert periods,” during which the ensembles prepare for their upcoming concert. The orchestras (Youth Orchestra, Repertory Orchestra, Wind Orchestra, and String Ensemble) also have “sectionals,” which are small group coaching sessions for individual instruments or instrument groups, led by outside professionals hired by ESYO. In September the Youth Orchestra and Repertory Orchestra go to Frost Valley, a YMCA camp in the Catskills, for an intensive training weekend, during which they have both full rehearsals and sectionals as well as a chance to get to know each other and their conductors.

During the season, many of ESYO’s orchestras and ensembles give young people’s concerts in area schools. The Youth Orchestra performs its Young People’s Concert in historic Proctors Theatre in Schenectady. That concert is followed by a free afternoon concert for seniors in the same theater.   Some of our other ensembles also give free concerts for the general public during the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall “Music at Noon” concert series and the Albany Tulip Festival.

After its November concert, the Youth Orchestra immediately starts to prepare for four performances of CBS 6’s Melodies of Christmas, to benefit the Child Cancer Program at Albany Medical Center. Not only do the musicians have the thrill of playing to over 10,000 people in Proctors Theatre AND being on TV, but they offer a valuable community service and experience the joy of helping youngsters with cancer.

The Youth Orchestra, sometimes joined by the Repertory Orchestra, Youth Percussion Ensemble, or the Youth Jazz Ensemble, also regularly performs at the renowned Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.
 

ESYO at Proctors Theatre, 432 State St, , Schenectady, NY 12305
Phone: 518-382-7581 | Email: esyoed@esyo.org

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Copyright © 2001 Empire State Youth Orchestra, Inc.