 "Photo: Photo Courtesy of MCT Campus")
Loyola continues its four-year partnership with the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra. The orchestra, which is entering its 32nd year, consists of three ensembles: the symphonic, the intermediate, and the beginners. The orchestra is in residence with Loyola as they practice at our Timonium campus, and they will be performing at the Evergreen campus in the beginning of November, with the tentative date of Nov. 3, in McGuire.
The orchestra will also have a regular series of concerts at the Scottish Right Temple, which is located in the 3800 block of North Charles street, only a short trip from campus. Any student, faculty or staff member with a current Loyola ID can attend these concerts for free. The concerts are very accessible, even to those unfamiliar with classical music. They often talk about the music before each performance begins.
In addition to this opportunity, the orchestra is hoping to recruit Loyola musicians.
"The orchestra is open to all Loyola students, by all addition. We only have a few Loyola students in the group," says Dr. Anthony Villa, director of the music program, who serves as a liaison between Loyola and the orchestra. "So we are looking to make everyone well aware of it". Any Loyola students interested in the program would audition for the symphonic Youth Orchestra.
"The Youth Orchestra, is one that performs unedited, unarranged music. The reason I say that is sometimes when people hear the term Youth Orchestra, that can sometimes mean what they do is play watered down versions of symphonic literature. They don't" Dr. Villa emphasizes. "The Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra does not, they play the real thing. Beethoven wrote it, they play every note Beethoven wrote. Tchaikovsky wrote it, its every note that Tchaikovsky wrote."
For the past twelve years the conductor of the group was Jason Love. However it was time for his tenure to end and to move onto other opportunities, though he still helps the orchestra. Currently, the orchestra is searching for the next conductor.
"The search for a new conductor has been answered by conductors who have been working in Europe as well as the United States. So the field of candidates has really been impressive. We are going to have kind of a conductor trial in October and a new director will be selected. I'm very excited" says Dr. Villa. "Any one of the three would be spectacular person to have."
The new director coincides with a great achievement for the Orchestra as they earned a NEA grant this year. They were the only youth orchestra to get one in the entire country d group instruction Apart from the search for a new conductor and maintaining their many successes, the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra will be continuing its involvement with the community with the third year of the Bridges program
Most of their students have consisted of students who could afford to have string instruments and private lessons from a young age, leaving few students from Baltimore city. There are very few string programs in the city, and string instruments and instruction are very expensive and the larger portion of the population can't afford the high cost.
The Bridges program was started to provide free instruments and group instruction. And the program has continuously grown with each year with approximately 300 students enrolled this year in five different locations in the city. This after-school program has been very successful and many students from Bridges have entered the beginning and intermediate youth orchestras.
"They share a vision of service, of community engagement, that I think is very consummate with Loyola."
Be the first to comment on this article!