Members and alumni of the Tecumseh Band Program will be performing with the local Springfield Youth Symphony (SYS) when the SYS plays alongside the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s (SSO) Nightlights II concert, Side by Side.
Students Stephen Kosey, Rachel Bailey, and Gwendolyn Chappell along with Tecumseh Band and SYS Alumni, AJ Peoples and Caitlin Lobl, are just a few of the forty three members of the SYS performing in the Side by Side concert. Tickets can be purchased through the SSO’s website at www.springfieldsym.org, or by calling the Clark State ticket office at 937-325-2874.
The concert takes place on February 27th at 8:00 p.m. in Springfield’s Kuss Auditorium, located at 300 S. Fountain Ave., Springfield.
Started in 1959, the SYS is the SSO’s longest-running youth orchestra and performs genuine orchestral music. The SYS is funded through grants from area businesses and private donations. SYS musicians are in grades eight through twelve and hail from over twenty different schools and home schools in Clark, Champaign, Logan, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, and Shelby counties.
Students must audition to join the SYS. Once accepted, members may stay in the SYS until they graduate from high school. The SYS is under currently the direction of Carlos Elias.
Some of the SYS members were previously members of the SSO’s two other youth orchestras. The Springfield Youth Chamber Orchestra (SYCO) has twenty-six members and serves mostly middle school students. The Springfield Youth String Ensemble (SYSE) has fourteen members and is made up of the Youth Orchestra program’s youngest musicians.
In addition to the Youth Orchestras, children with unchanged voices in grades three through eight may also participate in Springfield Children’s Chorus (SCC). Now in its fifth year, the SCC currently has eighteen members.
Alek Peugh, the Director of Operations and Education with the SSO says, “Programs like the Youth Orchestra are important because they give students opportunities that they may not have otherwise...our program brings students in from all over the region, and is an invaluable opportunity to make connections that distance may otherwise prevent. We also pride ourselves on the quality of our groups...the SYS plays real orchestral music. The chance to play high quality music on the (professional) Kuss Stage is something that these students could not get elsewhere.”
According to Peugh, although the SYS program serves as a supplemental program to the school music groups some SYS musicians already participate in, the SYS also serves many students who come from districts without orchestral programs, as well as homeschool students who don’t have access to formal school music programs.
Peugh comments that community members can support the SSO’s Youth Orchestra programs by attending its concerts and referring musicians to audition with the group. An education fundraiser called “Flavors!” will also be held on June 4th from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the Hollenbeck Bailey Conference Center located next to the Kuss Auditorium.
Following the Side by Side concert, the SYO’s next performance will be the John Smarelli Scholarship Concert on April 25 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the SSO’s website at www.springfieldsym.org, or by calling the Clark State ticket office at 937-325-2874.
More information and education-specific updates from the SYS & SCC can be found on the Springfield Symphony Youth Program’s Facebook page.
