NYS Will Culminate 50th Anniversary Season

With Special Alumni Concert

NORWALK — On Saturday, November 18, at 7:30 pm, Norwalk Youth Symphony will be concluding its year-long 50th anniversary commemoration with a special side-by-side intergenerational concert featuring alumni (including some extremely prominent in the music world) spanning the last 50 years playing with current NYS musicians.

The concert will be held at Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Avenue.

Norwalk Youth Symphony is comprised of approximately 250 students from 21 towns throughout Fairfield, New Haven, Litchfield and Westchester counties. The organization sponsors four orchestras: Prelude, a string orchestra for those who are often getting their first orchestral experience; Philharmonia, formerly Interlude, the next level string orchestra but now the newest full orchestra that serves as preparation for entry into the advanced symphony orchestras; Concert Orchestra, a full orchestra playing on an intermediate level; and Principal Orchestra, the most advanced orchestra playing demanding repertoire.

The concert will also feature the NYS debut of Todd Doan, who will be conducting the Prelude and Philharmonia ensembles this season. 

The concert will open with Mr Doan conducting the Prelude Orchestra playing Capriccio Espangnol by Rimsky-Korsakov and Ancient Ritual by Del Borgo.  Alumni will be playing alongside.

Mr Doan will next conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra performing Rhosymedre (Prelude on a Welsh Hymn Tune) by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He will then turn the baton over to alumni conductor Janet Farrar-Royce who led the NYS chamber orchestras for 11 years and has since become one of this country’s foremost experts on fiddle music.

Ms Farrar-Royce will conduct J.S. Bach’s “We Hasten with Eager Steps” (aria duet from Cantata BWV 89). For this work alumnus Yenoin Guibbory (one of the earliest alumni) will be joined by Todd Doan on violin and the Philharmonia principal cellist as soloists.

The Philharmonia will also perform Shenandoah (traditional American folk tune) and Aboriginal Ritual by Elliot del Borgo with alumni performing alongside the students.

Richard Brooks will next conduct the Concert Orchestra with alumni sitting in. Their program will feature Beeethoven’s Overture to Fidelio, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, and a flute quintet by Boismortier featuring NYS alumni Candace Channing and Barli Nugent with three flutists from the orchestra

The Principal Orchestra along with alumni will perform Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss under the baton of Tara Simoncic, Rossini’s Overture to “La Fazza Ladra” (The Thieving Magpie) and will be conducted by Gisele Ben-Dor, conductor of the Principal Orchestra from 1983-87.

Maestro Simoncic will next conduct Vivaldi’s “Summer” from The Four Seasons. The soloist will be Michael Szeto, who graduated from NYS in 2006 as concertmaster and is now a freshman at Columbia University.  The program will conclude with the popular work by Dukas, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for seniors and students and are available at the door before the concert. Potential members and their families, music teachers, and children age 5 and under are admitted free. For further information, contact the Norwalk Youth Symphony office at 203-866-4100.

In addition to the concert, there will be an alumni reception on Friday evening, November 17, as well as a farewell brunch on Sunday, November 19.  Interested alumni can still join the festivities.

To register, contact the NYS office or log onto the NYS website, NorwalkYouthSymphony.org.