What do you guys think are the best 5 youth orchestras in this nation?
<p>st. louis symphony youth babyyy! lol</p>
<p>How would you do this? Youth orchestras usually don't get much fame or press coverage. But I'd have to say the All National or All Regional orchestras for sure. We can't say for sure for any others.</p>
<p>how do you get into all national orchestras</p>
<p>there is a ranking, i dont remember who was at top but our youth orchestra was ranked 3rd in the nation (phoenix)</p>
<p>i think it was based on performance/difficulty of repertoire/presence at national honor orchestra</p>
<p>Well, I'd have to say that the best youth orchestra is the oldest in the country (and coincidentally, the one my son plays in...), the Portland Youth Philharmonic in Portland, Oregon.</p>
<p>just my opinion, of course! However, the PYP conductor, Mei Ann Chen, just returned home from being the first woman ever to win the Malko Competition for conductors in Denmark.</p>
<p>To get into the All National Orchestra, you have to be nominated from the All Regional Orchestra. To get into the All Regional Orchestra, you have to be nominated from the All State Orchestra. In both cases, nominated = ~Top 10.</p>
<p>shrek, are the rankings compiled through research or through nominations? For example, I think the Newsweek top high schools in the country depends on nominations of high schools. They don't actively search for top scores.</p>
<p>And of course, we all have our opinions about which is the best :)</p>
<p>Susantm, I'm curious. What repertoire does the PYP perform (recently, or notables)?</p>
<p>What if your state (Michigan) doesnt have the All State Orchestras?</p>
<p>Some of the pieces performed recently are: Stravinsky's "Petrouchka," and "Rite of Spring," Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony," Dvorak's 8th, "La Valse," and "Daphnis et Chloe," by Ravel, Moussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," Prokofiev's 5th Symphony, Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." (These are just some of those done in the last two years.)</p>
<p>And yes, of course we do have our own opinions, and I'll admit I may be just a tad prejudiced on this one. :-)</p>
<p>i think they were done thru some universities studies, i went to brevard one year and a few students had CDs of our youth orchestra's performances, same at EMF</p>
<p>im not quite sure tho but our youth orchestra always brags about it and uses it to attract people and the auditions are pretty cutthroat, its more difficult than all-state/better than all-state. </p>
<p>i was actually surprised at brevard and EMF because the orchestras there were much worse than our youth orchestra</p>
<p>some of our rep in my past years in this orchestra have been: shostakovich #1, #5, mahler #1, #3, scheherezade, rimsy korsakov russian easter, brahms #1, pictures at an exhibition, symphony fantastique, hindiminth, prokofieff #5 (if i remember correctly), wagner's die meistensinger (spelling) and a few more i cant remember</p>
<p>I play in the CSUN youth Philharmonic (possibly the best youth philharmonic in los angeles...not fully sure because there are no rankings).</p>
<p>Right now we are doing Mahler 1 and Borodin Polovtsian Dances 8 and 17. We did Pictures at an Exhibition earlier this year along with Tchaik Romeo and Juliet. </p>
<p>Previous years I have been involved in this group we did Shosta 5, Firebird, Mother Goose Suite, Corgliano Promenade Overture and many others.</p>
<p>I think it is a really great group of people really dedicated to playing.</p>
<p>Excellent youth orchestras I know of are Atlanta, New York, Philly, and Minneapolis.</p>
<p>Portland is really good, and i bet in all the big name cities with big name orchestra, their youth orchestras are good too (SF, Cleveland, NY...)</p>
<p>In MA, New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra is good, and so is Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra...</p>
<p>my orchestra played pics @ an exhibition, mauler 1, shosty 5, berstein 2, plus some other stuff</p>
<p>i was in all state...but after that there really isn't any real basis for nomination into the regional orchestra. Everybody pretty much gets 100s in the all state qualifying audition to get into all state...after that i think it was pretty much random. I know someone who was last chair second violin and got into all eastern but someone else (better) didn't. Is all national every year?</p>
<p>How would you guys rate Chicago youth symphony orchestra?</p>
<p>im sure most youth orchestras in large metropolitan areas are very good</p>
<p>phoenix is good only because there are no other youth orchestras in the metro area, thus, everyone goes to this one, there are also no real other youth orchestras in the state so we have kids that drive 2-3 hours to go to rehearsal from across the state</p>
<p>For Massachusetts and the East Coast, i think it alternates from All East to National Honors Orchestra; this year it was All East I think, next year it'll be National...etc...also, there aren't any auditions, but the top chairs in All State automatically get in All East or National Honors I think (like...top stand...)</p>
<p>anyway I was in All State 3 years and i never got to the next level lol</p>
<p>The American Youth Philharmoic (AYP) in Northern VA/DC area is really good. I'm in a youth orchestra as well (McLean Youth Orchestra) which is also in Northern Virginia, but it wasn't hard to get into. I got in because I held my viola the right way (that's how bad they needed violas!!). The cool thing about the MYO was that we went to Japan over Spring Break- we have a 'sister orchestra' in Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo. Very fun, and a great experience!</p>
<p>it's so exciting to see other musicians in cc! eeeeee! in these parts the greater dallas youth orchestra is about as good as it gets. we attract kids from far and away. it's almost entirely high-ranked texas all-state musicians, and texas is a freaking huge state. </p>
<p>we've done dvorak 7, polovetsian dances, shostakovich 10, tchaikovsky 4, beethoven 3, school for scandal overture, ummm i can't remember. next year we get to do shostakovich 5 with the dso, so yay. and our pops concert will include the pines of rome and rhapsody in blue. wooot. oh, and does anyone play modern stuff in their orch? we've world-premiered some pieces, and we played short ride in a fast machine by john adams last year, which is probably the coolest piece ever.</p>
<p>i've never heard any other youth orchestras, but i would say this is the best group i've ever played in. and the musicians in it are unbelievable. </p>
<p>okay, enough music love. well, there's never enough.</p>
<p>My wonderful Virtuosi of Houston is awesome because it's one of the few, if not the only, youth <em>chamber</em> orchestra in the US.</p>