I would like to know your opinions:
Which one, Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra (YAO) or National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA), is a better summer youth orchestra for high school junior students who would choose instrumental performance as their college major? Both orchestra’s applications require auditions including solo pieces and orchestral excerpts.
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My sophomore D is an alternate for NYO-USA and will be going to Tanglewood this summer. She’ll get a chance to study at BUTI with teachers who she is considering for college. NYO-USA is free if you get in. Every year the tour goes somewhere different and there is a different conductor. YAO has wonderful faculty and is a great experience, too.
Apply to both.
I agree with Spirit manager, they are both great programs with somewhat different focuses. With Tanglewood, besides the orchestra performance I believe you can do chamber, and also, of course, you get to hear the BSO play as well. NYO-USA is a bit different, in that for one thing, they also want kids involved who otherwise wouldn’t do a youth orchestra, they exclude students who are studying performance in college,for example, so the mix there may be a bit different. From what I have heard (and take that FWIW, simply scuttlebutt), the playing level is going to be similar between the two groups, though I have also heard that NYO-USA is looking for regional representation, so that may skew chances of getting in there and may change relative levels (BUTI as as far as I know does it based on the audition and doesn’t do much of the regional representation stuff), so that a viola player from an area not already represented in the orchestra may get in while someone from an area rich in players may not…
With the NYO, you get to travel and perform, so that sounds great,too,. and obviously working with top level conductors isn’t bad, either. I would say they are both great opportunities, and after seeing where they get in, make a decision based on which environment you want to be in:)
Thanks for your opinions. I think that most students in Tanglewood Young Artists Orchestra (YAO), in particular for those in winds and percussion sections, eventually choose music performance as their major in college. And many of them go to music conservatories. That may not be true for the students in NYO-USA program though.