Mix together and stir: Two bus fulls of middle and high school kids. Various parents. A music director with an entourage, and a separate van for the instruments and a change of underwear. What do you get? The Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, traveling to Carnegie Hall for a performance on June 13.
Carnegie Hall is still the biggest of the big leagues of concert venue anywhere in the world. The French will tell you the Paris Opera and the Italians will claim La Scala, Milan and they would be wrong. Those are glorious theaters but Carnegie Hall is CARNEGIE HALL.
Peter Stafford Wilson conducts the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has been understandably excited about this journey for over a year. Why shouldn't he be?
He will smile for the cameras, look pretty and conduct splendidly. Looking for Daisy's shoes or Billy's cummerbund isn't his problem. Peter has enough to do,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN6Lld2fxaU
A performance like this is a credit to parents who raised the kids and funds, the Columbus Symphony and CAPA who know the importance of outreach, and most of all to the kids who really do "practice practice practice."
They play very well indeed as an ensemble. What the Youth Orchestra sometimes misses in polish it makes up for in heart. Heart can be in short supply these days. Not here. As with athletics, you can't excel in music unless you really want to be there.
The Cincinnati Youth Symphony is sharing the date with our Junior Buckeyes.
I reiterate that musicians sounding splendid in the Ohio or southern theaters sound more so at 57th St. and 7th Avenue. Did you know the very sound of Carnegie Hall, the acoustic is under copyright? Try bringing in your own recording equipment and see how far you get.
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Alessandro Siciliani performed in Carnegie Hall in 2000. Boy was that a trip! I've told the story many times. If you haven't heard it, buy me a cheeseburger and a diet soda and I'll tell you all about it.
Meanwhile, The Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra perform in Carnegie Hall on Saturday, June 13. Music by Schnittke, Stravinsky, Brahms and Prokofiev.
