They are among the world’s most talented young musicians, and they are coming to Carnegie Hall for World Orchestra Week Aug. 1-7. They will perform with youth orchestras from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, as well as the United States.
Among the participating ensembles is the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America — in residence at SUNY Purchase — whose members, ages 16-19, have undergone intensive competitive auditions. A Carnegie Hall panel ranks them among the finest young players in the country. In past years, NYO musicians from Westchester included Rye cellist Esther Yu; Scarsdale violinist Alan Yao; and Montrose clarinetist Phillip Solomon.
Each summer the NYO is at SUNY Purchase for rehearsals, master classes, and training with principal players from major U.S. symphony orchestras. This year the NYO musicians will be joined at Purchase and for their Carnegie Hall concert (Aug. 5, 7 p.m.) by eight musicians from Polyphony, the Nazarethbased educational program that brings together Arab and Jewish musicians from Israel in performance. Following its Carnegie Hall concert, NYO will embark on a Latin American tour.
For its Carnegie Hall concert, Marin Alsop, conductor laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will lead the National Youth Orchestra in Barber’s “Symphony No. 1”; Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet; and Rimsky Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”