Youth Orchestra

Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra, one of Maryland's premier performing arts organizations for young people, has planned a season that includes choral masterpieces, a piano competition and a joint concert with a youth orchestra from New York.The season opens with a stage full of musicians from all three ensembles performing under the -CYSO aegis at 3 p.m. Dec. 21 at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.The String Orchestra under the direction of John Nardolillo, the intermediate Repertory Orchestra under Jason Love's baton and the senior ensemble with Mark McCoy on the podium will present a program of holiday favorites.

A hotshot quintet called Classical Jam — Jennifer Choi, violin; Cyrus Beroukhim, viola; Wendy Law, cello; Marco Granados, flute; Justin Hines, percussion — was formed recently "to reach out to diverse audiences" and promote classical music "to people who feel that they cannot relate to it, or for one reason or another, are not exposed to it." One way Classical Jam fulfills that mission is through collaborative projects and the creation of new music. The ensemble is heading to Maryland for a residency next week at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda and a side trip to Baltimore that promises interesting sounds for veteran and novice classical music listeners alike.

Classical music today just isn't what it used to be. "You hear a lot of talk that classical music is struggling to stay relevant in our culture," says Jason Love, now in his 10th year as artistic director of the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra. "But we're finding a lot of growth." The orchestra is not simply finding growth but driving it. Led by new executive director Peter Schafer, the 29-year-old youth organization is reaching for a larger audience, beginning with a new bus advertising campaign to promote Sunday's holiday concert.

The Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra performs holiday music 3 p.m. Saturday at the Annapolis Area Christian School, 109 Burns Crossing Road in Severn. Admission is free. Call 443-758-3157 for more information.

The Second Symphony of Howard Hanson (1896-1981) is anything but children's music, which is good because the members of the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra sounded like anything but kids when they played it at Maryland Hall on Sunday afternoon.Aptly subtitled the "Romantic," the Hanson Second is a youthful, optimistic work that represents the 20th-century American symphony at its freshest and best.It also poses immense challenges to younger musicians. Elegant solo work is demanded from all quarters of the winds and brass, while elegant, sustained playing is a must if the requisite sonorities are to be achieved.

Some of Maryland's finest young musicians will come together Saturday evening when the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra presents its Gala Spring Concert at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis. The 7 p.m. concert will be led by the orchestra's music director, David Ik-Sung Choo, who will conduct works by Tchaikovsky, Lalo and Beethoven in addition to the "Elegy" composed by Raymond Weidner, composer and choirmaster at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park. Soloing in the first movement of Edouard Lalo's sultry "Symphonie Espagnole" will be violinist Robert Burnett, 17, of Bowie, winner of this season's Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.

The fringe benefits of performing in the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra are what everyone hears and reads about: trips to Taiwan, Spain and England, along with performances such as the one scheduled at the Lyric Opera House on Sunday afternoon.What isn't covered in the travelogue is the practicing. On average, rehearsals are 4 1/2 hours on Saturdays -- every Saturday from September to June.Leading this orchestra of youthful commitment is conductor and founder Angelo Gatto, a 10-year resident of Glenwood and native of Largo, Italy, who teaches strings to Howard County public school students and is a member of the music faculty at Catonsville Community College.

THE GREATER Baltimore Youth Orchestra, cut out of a three-week summer tour of Italy because of Persian Gulf jitters, will instead play an all-American program to benefit a local health program for low-income children who are ineligible for medical assistance.The 65 players, ages 14 to 21 and mostly area high school students, will perform at 7 p.m. Sunday at Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College. Tickets are $5 and $3 for seniors. The players, based at Essex Community College, rehearse weekly under their director, Anne Harrigan.

Witches dance eerily at a funeral, two would-be enemies accidentally fall in love, and hallucinations plague a Harvard scientist at Sunday's Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra finale concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The scenes aren't visually depicted. Rather, these stories are illustrated through music in Journeys of the Mind, a program in which some of the pieces share the same theme: altered mental states.

Jozef Horvath, the gifted 19-year-old winner of the 1994 Slovak Conservatories Violin Competition, is in Annapolis this weekend to perform with the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra.Mr. Horvath, a student of master teacher Albin Vrtel, comes to Annapolis thanks to a relationship forged last summer by local musicians and the State Conservatory of Bratislava.The 40 musicians of the Chesapeake orchestra visited the Republic of Slovakia last July, not just to be sightseers at medieval castles, Gothic cathedrals, picturesque churches and impressive Baroque palaces, but to perform.

"I believe the music world is about to burst into a new age of glory," says Benjamin Zander. If so, it may be because the British-born conductor has been responsible for so much combustive fuel over the past several decades. His intensely committed level of music-making from the podium has earned him cult status. Zander's primary musical outlet during the regular concert season is in Massachusetts, where he's the founding conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, a dynamic orchestra of professionals, students and amateurs.

THEATER A pair of comedies Ireland's Druid Theater Company presents a double bill of playwright J.M. Synge's tart comedies. The Shadow of the Glenn, Synge's first staged work, is a one-act exploration of a decaying marriage. In The Playboy of the Western World, a farm boy improbably becomes catnip for women after he claims to have killed his father. See the performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St. N.W., Washington, at 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday.

Witches dance eerily at a funeral, two would-be enemies accidentally fall in love, and hallucinations plague a Harvard scientist at Sunday's Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra finale concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The scenes aren't visually depicted. Rather, these stories are illustrated through music in Journeys of the Mind, a program in which some of the pieces share the same theme: altered mental states.

Some of the instruments were squeaking. One girl didn't want to take off her hood because she had a "hair problem." Another girl, briefly, was missing her music, one of the cello players was moody and several students straggled in late. The music teacher, Anna Harris, was not the least bit unnerved by any of it. She looked out brightly at the elementary school students balancing their basses, cellos, violas and violins. "Can I see your beautiful, beautiful orchestra positions?" she asked.

Classical music today just isn't what it used to be. "You hear a lot of talk that classical music is struggling to stay relevant in our culture," says Jason Love, now in his 10th year as artistic director of the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra. "But we're finding a lot of growth." The orchestra is not simply finding growth but driving it. Led by new executive director Peter Schafer, the 29-year-old youth organization is reaching for a larger audience, beginning with a new bus advertising campaign to promote Sunday's holiday concert.

Monument Piano Trio The lowdown -- If you haven't discovered the Monument Piano Trio, the resident ensemble at An die Musik and a valuable addition to Baltimore's classical scene, Saturday's program should provide an engaging introduction. In addition to Rachmaninoff's Trio elegiaque, a stirring, infrequently heard work written after the death of Tchaikovsky, trios by Mozart and Brahms will be performed by violinist Igor Yuzefovich, cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski and pianist Michael Sheppard.

Members of the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestras returned from the International Music Festival in Montreal with gold and bronze medals.The Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra Philharmonic, directed by Paul Jan Zdunek, earned the gold medal, the highest award presented at the festival. Known for its tough international competition, only 8 percent of participating orchestras receive the gold medal at the annual event.The Philharmonic is a full-size orchestra of 60 musicians, ages 13 to 20, from Baltimore City as well as the counties of Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford, Howard, Frederick and Washington.

Sailing open house Despite what you may think, sailing is not just for the idle rich. Not at the Downtown Sailing Center, anyway. The nonprofit organization offers affordable sailing lessons, sailing camps and memberships to people of all ages and skill levels. And you don't even need to own your own boat. Saturday, the center holds an open house featuring free introductory sails, tours of the center and an opportunity for visitors to learn about the center's offerings. A second open house takes place June 3. The Downtown Sailing Center has more than 30 boats, including J/22s, JY 15s and Australian 10 Access Sailing Dinghies for disabled sailors.

After a two-year search, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra named Jose-Luis Novo yesterday as its new conductor and musical director. Novo was among six finalists who tried out for the chance to succeed Leslie B. Dunner, whose contract was not renewed after five years. Birthplace: Valladolid, Spain Age: 38 Family: married (his wife, Lori Kesner, is an American flutist) Education: After studying at a conservatory in his hometown in Spain, he attended the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, then came to the United States as a Fulbright scholar.

At age 15, children are smack-dab in the middle of their teen-age years. What better moment for a parent to step back, appraise them and utter those time-honored words, "My, how you've grown." The same goes for orchestras, as we'll see this weekend when Anne Arundel County's very own Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra takes center stage at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts for a concert commemorating the 15th birthday of the ensemble that's become one of Maryland's foremost musical organizations for the young.