Submit your First Music and First Art Applications Now!

The Jazz deadline for First Music, the New York Youth Symphony’s project for commissioning America’s best emerging composers under age 30, has been extended to January 31, 2010. To learn more about First Music, click here.

The deadline for First Art, our commissioning project for young visual artists, is January 30, 2010. For more about First Art, click here.

Orchestra’s “Best Concert Ever!” Opens 2009-10 Season
in Carnegie Hall with Jazz Band Classic
in Tchaikovsky-Ellington Nutcracker Suite

The orchestra under music director Ryan McAdams opened its 47th season on November 22 in Carnegie Hall highlighted by selections from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” interlaced with Jazz Band Classic’s performance of the same suite in Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s masterful arrangement. The 15-member jazz band under the direction of Chris Winans in his Carnegie Hall début made a compelling musical case for the swing version, handing off each movement to the sweet sounds of the 115-member orchestra. The near-capacity audience jumped to its feet in wild applause at the program’s conclusion.

The orchestra opened the concert with a sumptuous, completely professional performance of Ravel’s challenging “Daphnis and Chloé,” Suite No. 2. Clarinetist Sarah Beaty made her Carnegie Hall début in a striking new work, “Filigree” for clarinet and orchestra, by Kyle Blaha, age 28. Ms. Beaty, already a presence on the professional circuit, lifted the brutishly difficult work, commissioned by the orchestra as its 76th such piece in the acclaimed First Music series, to a near-ethereal level. (More about the opening and for tickets to future performances.)

Single Ticket Purchases for the 2009-10 Opening
Top Box Office Sales!

Carnegie Hall’s box office reported a record number of tickets sold for the opening performance, with more than 500 sold on that single day! Subscription sales for the orchestra’s three-concert series were up 30% over the previous season. Subscriptions at $45 for Jazz Band Classic’s eighth season are still available. Single tickets at $15 for remaining orchestra concerts and the first of Jazz Band Classic’s season go on sale 30 days prior to each performance. The best way to guarantee seating for the jazz band’s season is to buy a three-performance season subscription. Seating for the jazz band’s performances in Symphony Space and at Jazz at Lincoln Center is extremely limited. (See more about Jazz Band Classic and for subscriptions and single ticket performances.)

Sigourney Weaver Presents 15th Annual
Kesselman Arts Education Award
to Jazz Legend Jimmy Heath

A regular feature at the orchestra’s opening each season, the presentation of the Theodore L. Kesselman Award for Arts Education was given to Jimmy Heath, the legendary saxophonist. Peabody Award-winning producer and WQXR announcer Elliott Forrest hosted the on-stage proceedings after the concert’s intermission, introducing Sigourney Weaver as the award presenter. The honoree was feted at a post-performance reception at the New York Athletic Club, held each year to raise funds for the New York Youth Symphony. More than 200 attended.

Jazz Band Classic Opens Eighth Swinging Season
in Symphony Space, December 11 and 12

Director Chris Winans and his 15-member big band swing into a new season on December 11 and 12, centered on bebop champion Rich Perry, the renowned tenor saxophonist. Characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation, bebop grew out of jazz structures and melody around 1941 and 1942. Jazz Band Classic presents this lively music as a unique counterpoint to other styles deriving from the time of the second world war. Seating at $15 is limited in the intimate setting of the Nimoy Hall of Symphony Space. (See more about Jazz Band Classic and for subscriptions and single ticket performances.)

Jazz Band Classic musicians pictured in their Carnegie Hall dressing lounge
with honoree Jimmy Heath, legendary jazz saxophone legend.

2009-10 Budget Confronts $113,500 Projected Deficit

The New York Youth Symphony recently approved its fiscal year 2009-10 budget of almost $1,100,000. After reducing expenses of $100,000 over the prior year and using $100,000 of its reserve funds, the not-for-profit organization is still left looking at over $113,000 in projected expenses with no known sources of revenue to cover it. The Board did not want to cut funding at this time from any of the core educational programs, and so it remains the chief tasks to sustain current levels of donor giving while uncovering new donor sources to close the spending gap.

Making tickets more affordable for everyone during hard times, the New York Youth Symphony offers subscriptions for the orchestra and jazz band's three-performance schedules at $45! Single tickets for each performance go on sale 30 days prior to each performance, so the best way to guarantee the best seats is to by a subscription now. A music bargain by any standard! (See subscriptions)

The orchestra opens its 47th season in Carnegie Hall in a performance of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite . . . but with a twist. Onstage wth the 105-member ensemble will be the 16-piece Jazz Band Classic, and it will also perform The Nutcracker, but in the masterful arrangement made famous by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Conductor Ryan McAdams will take the podium with the first movement, and it will be followed by the hard-driving sounds of the jazz band led by Chris Winans. This will be one of the most exciting and effervescent Nutcrackers ever! (More about the opening and for tickets.)

We are still accepting auditions for the following instruments/positions only: Principal Trombone, Section Viola, Section Double Bass, Contrabassoon, Section Horn, Tuba, and Clarinet.
Please call the office at 212-581-5933.

Haochen Zhang, Durst Début Soloist on Last Season's
Orchestra Opener, Captures First Prize
at Cliburn International Piano Competition

Pianist Haochen Zhang, 19, and a student of Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music, was one of two musicians to take First Prize in the prestigious competition held last spring. Mr. Zhang was the 15th artist in the 'Roy and Shirley Durst Début Series' to captivate audiences at the orchestra's performances in Carnegie Hall. He performed Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto and "Strife," a new work by First Music composer Ryan Gallagher. The November 30, 2008, performance was led by Music Director Ryan McAdams. Reviewing Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" on that same concert, Allan Kozinn of The New York Times said that it was a "sharply articulated, thoughtfully shaped performance." (See Haochen Zhang and NY Times review.)

Photo Credit: Van Cliburn Foundation

The organization is taking the current budget under a more focused review.  Barry Goldberg, NYYS Executive Director, notes that tighter controls over spending for the rest of this season are necessary.  “We have had to pull back on spending to promote our performances so that essential services to the students aren’t compromised,” he observed.  “Nevertheless, this means smaller attendance at our events,” he said, “unless the musicians themselves can put the word out to their friends and family to attend in larger numbers.”  The Board of Trustees is currently reviewing the 2009-10 budget for next season to see where costs can be contained without curtailing music services unnecessarily.

Next Generation Fund Hits New High as Campaign Continues Unabated

The New York Youth Symphony’s campaign to raise its endowment and reserve funds to $4 million received a boost recently in a bequest of almost $1.3 million from the estate of the organization’s late Trustee, Joseph F. McCrindle.  In-hand cash or pledges set a record $3.4 million.  The objective of the fund-raising is to stabilize the organization’s finances by generating a revenue stream to support the student scholarship fund.