The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, comprised of gifted young men and women from age 13 to 18 from the Atlanta area, will perform their own series of concerts beginning November 9, 2008 at 3:00 pm at Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center. ASYO Music Director Jere Flint will lead this performance.
Other concerts this season include A Kid's Christmas, Sundays, December 7 and 14, 2008; a winter concert on Sunday, March 15, 2009, an ASO Family Concert, "Bach to the Future," Sunday, April 19, 2009; and a spring concert on Sunday, May 31, 2009.
The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra will also be a featured ensemble at the American String Teachers Association Conference on Saturday, March 21, 2008. The American String Teachers Association (ASTA) founded more than 60 years ago, is a membership organization for string and orchestra teachers and players, helping them to develop and refine their careers. ASTA's members range from budding student teachers to artist-status performers.
About the Artists
A frequent conductor of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts, ASYO Music Director Jere Flint leads the ASO's popular family concerts and Symphony Street concerts for youngsters. He also conducts on the Classic Chastain pops series at Chastain Park. As Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, he directs weekly ASYO rehearsals and three major concerts a year, as well as other special concerts throughout the season. When not on the podium, he is a member of the ASO's cello section, where he has performed for more than three decades.
Since 1974, the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra has provided the cream of Atlanta's young instrumentalists with an opportunity to perform orchestral masterworks under the city's finest conductors. Every September, nearly 400 instrumentalists of high school age audition for places in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Standards are high, for only about 120 are selected to participate. Those chosen can look forward to long hours of practice, both individually and together, under the guidance of conductors and players from the parent Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Many of the Youth Orchestra's members have gone on to study music in conservatories and university music departments. Not every ASYO member goes on to a career in music, of course, but the discipline and performing experience of playing in an orchestra provide benefits that are treasured by all ASYO alumni throughout their lives.
The ASYO will be the featured orchestra for the 2009 National American String Teachers Association conference which will be held in Atlanta. Additionally these remarkable youth musicians will perform 3 subscription concerts, 4 holiday performances, and a family concert during the ASYO's 34th season. An exciting range of repertoire is planned with works by Dvorak, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich.
In 2006 "Collective Soul," the multi-platinum recording pop artists, requested that the ASYO perform with them for the band's first live DVD entitled "Home: A Live Concert Recording With The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra" recorded live at two sold-out Atlanta performances. The two CD-set of the 20-song collection that followed won such widespread attention, that several members of the ASYO appeared on NBC's Tonight Show. -- www.atlantasymphony.org
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