RPYO opens concert season on November 16

RPYO Music Director David Harman will lead the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in its opening concert of the 2003-2004 season on Sunday, November 16, at 7 p.m. in the Performance Hall of the Hochstein School of Music and Dance.

Entitled "Italian and American Inspirations," this concert sets the mood for a season of Italian and American music in honor of its Spring 2004 Tour to Italy.

The program will include works by our most American composers, an overture from an opera by Verdi, and one of the great romantic symphonic works inspired by a famous tale from Italy, Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy."

The RPYO will perform Bernstein's Overture to "Candide," Copeland's Hoedown from "Rodeo," Ellington's Sophisticated Lady (as arranged by Jeff Tyzik), Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" selections for Orchestra, in addition to Verdi's Overture to La Forza del Destino" and the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy by Tchaikovsky.

Area participants include Katherine Ludington, Trumpet, 10th grade, Brockport High School; Sara Baglioni, Oboe, 11th grade, Hilton High School; Michael Sabatka, Viola, 8th grade and Aaron Shewan, Horn, 11th grade, Churchville-Chili Sr. High School.

The Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra was established in 1970 to offer the area's finest young musicians an opportunity to perform the world's great symphonic music. Its program is sponsored by the Education Department of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Ninety-six middle and high school students from over thirty different schools perform in the RPYO. They rehearse each week at Apollo Middle School in Greece, guided by Dr. David Harman and by Mentors from the RPO. This coming April the RPYO will travel to Italy and will give concerts in the vicinities of Milan, Bologna and Rome.