|
Washington, DC - Hailing from over 20 Western Hemisphere countries, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) will perform Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 at The Music Center at Strathmore on August 7. The orchestra is conducted by Benjamin Zander.
YOA is a world-class, symphony orchestra of 75 gifted young musicians, ages 18 to 28, who are selected through a rigorous audition process and given full scholarships, thereby enabling participation regardless of means. Over 10,000 youth have auditioned and more than 500 participated in YOA to date.
YOA assembles each July for a two-week residency during which they participate in master classes and rehearsals to prepare a diverse and challenging repertoire for a three-week concert tour in multiple countries. During this year’s residency, the musicians were coached by orchestral chairs from the Berlin Philharmonic, Rome Opera, and San Francisco Symphony aand by musicians from other leading orchestras. The Strathmore performance comes towards the end of the orchestra’s July 13 to August 11-U.S.-Canadian tour.
YOA was founded in 2001 by New England Conservatory and Vision, Inc., a group led by Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CEO of Strategic Investment Group. YOA is dedicated to the promotion of Latin American arts and culture and exchanges between Latin and non-Latin cultures. YOA has performed over 100 concerts in the United States, South and Central America and Europe including places never previously reached by a symphony orchestra.
Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Anthony McGill at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009 and has received rave reviews in The New York Times and other publications.
Conductor Benjamin Zander, a member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory, is the founding conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and has established an international reputation as a guest conductor with many of the world’s major orchestras. He has recorded extensively and also has a busy speaking career.
Funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by National Endowment for the Arts.
The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities is honored to support this Youth Orchestra of the Americas United States-Canada Tour with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
WPAS and YOA also extend special thanks to Arturo and Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg for making this performance possible.
WPAS is committed to making every event accessible for persons with disabilities. Please call the WPAS Ticket Services Office for more information on accessibility to the various theaters in which our performances are held. Services offered vary from venue to venue and may require advance notice.
Washington Performing Arts Society has created profound opportunities for connecting the community to artists, in both education and performance. Through live events in venues that criss-cross the landscape of the D.C. metropolitan area, the careers of emerging artists are guided, and established artists who have bonded with the local audience are invited to return. In this way, the space between artists and audiences is eliminated, so that all may share life-long opportunities to deepen their cultural knowledge, enrich their lives, and expand their understanding and compassion of the world through the universal language of the arts.
American Airlines® is the official airline of Washington Performing Arts Society’s 2008/2009 Season.
Tickets: $15 for adults, children are free.
Tickets are available at www.wpas.org, or by calling (202) 785-9727
|
