
Photo courtesy of CAPA
Forget listening to CSNY. Ohio’s very own CSYO – the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra – will perform a free concert at 6:30 p.m. on June 10 at Alum Creek Park North Amphitheatre.
These instrumentalists in grades 9-12 will be playing the same program that they will be performing in New York City’s Carnegie Hall on June 13, when the orchestra visits the Carnegie Hall for the first time. The program contains Johannes Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, Lowell Liebermann’s Nocturne for Orchestra and Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
The CSYO, conducted by Columbus Symphony Orchestra associate conductor Peter Stafford Wilson, performs classic orchestral standards with an emphasis on American music. The individuals in this 99-member orchestra are selected annually through a competitive audition process and include musicians from 36 high schools in more than 20 Ohio counties. Seventy-six of these musicians will be performing in NYC, joined by four alumni of the CSYO and four members of Columbus’ Cadet Orchestra.
Wilson has been with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for 25 years and has been associate conductor for 10 years. He took the CSYO on a China tour in 2005 and leads the Columbus All-City Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra Summer Pops and the Westerville Symphony. He is also conductor and music director of the Springfield Symphony.
The Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra will be joining the CSYO and will perform the opening half of the show in NYC.