The Importance Of A Youth Symphony

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Symphonies have been an attractive idea since the 1500s. In our modern era, the concept of a youth symphony is not particularly common, but certainly feasible. By definition, a youth symphony orchestra must only consist of musicians who are younger than eighteen years of age. Four certain criteria must be met to be an authentic, immersive youth orchestra. The criteria that make a youth symphony authentic is the size of the orchestra, the quality of the music, the repertoires chosen, and the programs within the orchestra. These of which are mostly true for the Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra (MSYO); a youth orchestra originated in Mobile, Alabama. The size of the orchestra is one of the most important parts of a real youth symphony. An orchestra’s …show more content…

The performance must be of exceptional quality and must entertain the audience with the repertoire that has been selected by the conductor. For example, the repertoire selected must be of the orchestra’s skill level; otherwise, the performance would be unlikable due to tuning and precision issues. For the sake of the MSYO, Dr. Robert Seebacher, their maestro, chooses repertoire that is workable for the orchestra. To illustrate this idea, this year’s musical pieces includes Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite, Borodin: Polovtsian Dances, and Gliere: Russian Sailors ' Dance which are all tough, but doable pieces. Symphony orchestras should tune, prepare, and collaborate with each other before a performance to ensure the entertainment is prodigious for the audience. The Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra achieves the criterion by developing with auditions, letting the conductor chose the repertoire, and making sure the pieces are doable within their time …show more content…

This standard will support the other three criteria. This is important because it helps the quality of the music stay on their highest level. The MSYO owns multiple programs in their orchestras. For example, when the students are still in elementary school, the MSYO sends Mobile Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the parent of the MSYO, musicians to teach the elementary students while at school. The elementary teachings also better prepare the very young players until they can audition for the MSYO. The program that teaches music to elementary school students also acts as an advertising campaign for the MSYO. The MSYO also has coaches to help the musicians during rehearsals. The MSYO has a rehearsal every Sunday. In those two-and-a-half hours, an upper strings coach, two lower strings coaches, two brass coaches, a percussion coach, and a woodwind coach come in to help. The coaches come from the MSO. Due to the excellent programs that the MSYO provides, renowned artists come from all over the world to perform with the MSYO. The MSYO meets this criterion by having a sufficient number of programs to fulfill the youth orchestra’s appearance and

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