Youth Orchestras of San Antonio

Last updated March 01, 2019

G. Lewis Doll (1901–1985) established the first string program in the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) in the 1940s. At this time, no other public school district in San Antonio offered string instruction. As the SAISD string program grew, Doll started the San Antonio Youth Symphony around 1950. A second orchestra for junior high school students was formed in the 1960s and both orchestras operated under the auspices of the SAISD until 1979.

San Antonio Independent School District is a school district based in Downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States.

1974-1983

The San Antonio Youth Symphony began receiving grant money from the City of San Antonio, Texas in 1974 and became known as the Greater San Antonio Youth Symphony Orchestras (GSAYSO). At this time, only four of the 19 area school districts offered string music programs. The GSAYSO opened string learning centers in some of the districts that were without a strings program. When this strings learning center program ceased in 1979, only the Northside Independent School District was able to sponsor its own string program.

Northside Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Leon Valley, Texas. It is the largest school district in the San Antonio area and the fourth largest in the State of Texas. Northside serves 355 square miles (920 km²) of urban landscape, suburban growth and rural territory in the San Antonio suburbs and the Hill Country. Northside is roughly 50 percent built out with the center of the district's boundaries near Helotes, just north of the Bandera Road and Loop 1604 intersection. Because of fast-paced growth, the district envisions possibly another four high schools over the next few decades, including far west areas off Potranco Road and Hwy 211, Culebra Road past Talley Road, I-10 near Boerne Stage Road and far north Bandera Road near the Pipe Creek/Bandera County/Medina County areas.

The Youth Philharmonic Orchestras of San Antonio was formed in 1977 and operated independently of GSAYSO until they merged in March 1979. The name Youth Orchestras of San Antonio (YOSA) was formally adopted in the summer of 1979.

Maintaining four orchestras for the first few years of its existence proved to be impractical for the young YOSA organization. In 1981, the orchestras were reduced to two even though the demand by talented student musicians continued to grow. During the 1982-83 season, the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department provided YOSA with office space, a secretary, and other assistance which stabilized YOSA’s financial picture and attracted more private and business support.

An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which mixes instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as violin, viola, cello, and double bass, as well as brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments, each grouped in sections. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments.

1984-1994

The decade from 1984 to 1994 saw steady growth in both student membership and services provided by YOSA. A strong coaching staff was added to the program, enhancing the quality of the students' musicianship. A landmark event in YOSA history came in 1985 with the addition of a tour of Eastern Europe with performances in Romania, Hungary, and Austria. The tour was sponsored by the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Dept. and KMOL, a local television station, and made under the auspices of the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation (a non-profit organization specializing in cultural and educational exchanges). Publicity about the tour resulted in another sharp increase in YOSA membership.

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of the European continent. There is no consensus on the precise area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic connotations. There are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region". A related United Nations paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct".

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the southeast, Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east. It has a predominantly temperate-continental climate. With a total area of 238,397 square kilometres (92,046 sq mi), Romania is the 12th largest country and also the 7th most populous member state of the European Union, having almost 20 million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, and other major urban areas include Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, and Brașov.

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Austria to the northwest, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, and Slovenia to the west. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a medium-sized member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world. Hungary's capital and its largest city and metropolis is Budapest. Other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.

As a result of the fundraising efforts for the international tour, the parents’ support group was formalized to the Parents’ Auxiliary Organization and continues to be the main vehicle for raising money for student’s individual tour accounts. To date, most of the money raised by the Parents' Auxiliary Organization continues to be used to support touring fees on behalf of the student musicians.

Performances

Local YOSA performances have included community events, including the City of San Antonio’s Christmas tree-lighting ceremonies and the opening concert of the Founders’ Day celebration. Regional exchanges and tours to cities such as Ft. Worth, Houston and Corpus Christi have been included in season schedules. The Summer String Camp has been conducted by YOSA annually since 1986 and now includes classes in theory, composition, and conducting. In the 2005-2006 Season, the YOSA Philharmonic orchestra launched their Gold Series with international guest artists accompanying their top orchestra.

Houston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States, with a census-estimated population of 2.312 million in 2017. It is the most populous city in the Southern United States and on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth most populous metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States and the second most populous in Texas after the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA. With a total area of 627 square miles (1,620 km²), Houston is the eighth most expansive city in the United States ; it is the largest city in the United States by total area, whose government is similarly not consolidated with that of a county or borough. Though primarily in Harris County, small portions of the city extend into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

Corpus Christi, colloquially Corpus, is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio Counties. It is 130 miles southeast of San Antonio. Its political boundaries encompass Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay. Its zoned boundaries include small land parcels or water inlets of three neighboring counties.

Great Tour of China 2010

In 2010, along with conductor Troy Peters, YOSA took its first tour to China. This is YOSA's eighth international tour. They toured five cities in fourteen days, with four performances. Their first performance was in Beijing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Their second performance was an outdoor concert at the Shanghai World Expo. Their third concert took place in Hangzhou, at the Zhejiang Provincial Concert Hall. Their fourth and final concert was in Hong Kong, a side-by-side concert with the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra (HKYSO) at the Kwai Tsing Theater. In addition to these four cities, the YOSA group also made stops in Wuzhen and Shenzhen. The tour orchestra consisted of young musicians ages 12–19 from both the YOSA Symphony Orchestra and the YOSA Philharmonic Orchestra.

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), and colloquially described as The Giant Egg (巨蛋), is an arts centre containing an opera house in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The Centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake, seats 5,452 people in three halls and is almost 12,000 m² in size. It was designed by French architect Paul Andreu. Construction started in December 2001 and the inaugural concert was held in December 2007.

Hangzhou formerly romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang Province in East China. It sits at the head of Hangzhou Bay, which separates Shanghai and Ningbo. Hangzhou grew to prominence as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and has been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last millennium. The city's West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage site immediately west of the city, is among its best-known attractions. A study conducted by PwC and China Development Research Foundation saw Hangzhou ranked first among "Chinese Cities of Opportunity". Hangzhou is also considered a World City with a "Beta+" classification according to GaWC.

Conductors

Music Director Troy Peters joined Youth Orchestras of San Antonio in August 2009. Prior to joining YOSA, he served for 14 years as the Music Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, as well as the Middlebury College Orchestra, and Montpelier Chamber Orchestra. Peters has conducted over 20 performances with the San Antonio Symphony, twice stepping in last-minute. In 2012/13 he made his guest conducting debut with the Oregon Symphony. Peters has gained attention for his orchestral collaborations with rock musicians such as Jon Anderson (of YES) and Trey Anastasio(of Phish) along with orchestral soloists Midori, Edgar Meyer, Horacio Gutiérrez, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) and Soovin Kim. Past conducting positions include the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the Pacific Chamber Soloists, and Perpetuum Mobile.^[1]

Mission

"The mission of Youth Orchestras of San Antonio, the premier orchestral experience for youth citywide, is to enhance education, enrich the community and transform lives by pursuing excellence in classical music in a stimulating, nurturing and fun environment that is equally accessible to all youth."^[2]

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References

Information for this brief history was referenced from "A History of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio from 1977 to 1994", written by Eugene Brown Dowdy, May 1995.

↑ Peters, Troy. Troy Peters http://www.troypetersmusic.com/biography/ . Retrieved 17 May 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
↑ "Youth Orchestras of San Antonio". YOSA. Retrieved 17 May 2012.

External links

Former YOSA Musician Named Gates Millennium Scholar

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[1] Peters, Troy. Troy Peters http://www.troypetersmusic.com/biography/ . Retrieved 17 May 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)

[2] "Youth Orchestras of San Antonio". YOSA. Retrieved 17 May 2012.