Youth Orchestra

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 student: Kevin McGovern, 11 School: Mount View Middle School Special achievement: Last year, he was accepted to play the bass in the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra. What he says about it: "I was the youngest person chosen since I was in elementary school and it was a high school orchestra. I auditioned without even knowing what it was for. Then Mr. Gatto, the director of the orchestra, said, `I want you to be in my orchestra.' I was excited, and my mom was substitute teaching in my school that day and Mr. Gatto told her and that was great."

The Chesapeake Youth Symphony began with one orchestra, one gifted conductor and a master plan fashioned by community leaders intent on giving talented young musicians the opportunity to play demanding symphonic repertoire in the most supportive artistic environment possible. Ten years later, the CYSO, with no fewer than four ensembles under its organizational aegis, will celebrate the decade with a season-ending concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.

The music world loves a birthday party as much as anyone else, so it is with special pleasure that the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra pays homage to George Gershwin, America's songwriter supreme, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.All three youth orchestra ensembles will gather at 7: 30 p.m. Saturday in Maryland Hall in Annapolis for a performance that will conclude the organization's eighth year of concerts.Joining the senior orchestra ensemble and conductor Mark Allen McCoy will be guest pianist Daniel Lau, who will play "Rhapsody In Blue."

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.

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.

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.

Baltimore is the first stop in a 10-city tour for Sergiu Comissiona, conductor laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the 120-voice Asian Youth Orchestra (AYO). This Hong Kong-based orchestra, hailed by some as "The Best Orchestra in the Far East," hired Comissiona as its principal conductor. Marylanders know Comissiona from his 17 years as the BSO music director. He founded the BSO Chorus during his tenure.The AYO is one of only two orchestras in the world to be asked to perform under contract with the United Nations to celebrate the U.N.'s 50th anniversary.

Edgar Holmes made his first trip to the United States in 1962, to the then-little town of Westminster, to teach vocal music at Westminster Junior High School for one year as a Fulbright Fellow.As part of an exchange program, he replaced the Westminster school's music teacher, George Carrozza, who had requested to go to England. Mr. Carrozza landed in Hampshire County in south central England for the 1962-1963 academic year."I couldn't even find Westminster on the map back then," Mr. Holmes said Tuesday, the first of a three-day stay in Carroll County.

Let it be known that the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra is in very capable hands.Scott Speck, in his debut concert at the helm, had his 56 musicians in excellent form Sunday evening in a program of Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Brahms and John Adams at Key Auditorium in Annapolis.Mr. Speck, 33, establishes a much different podium persona from that of his predecessor, Arne Running, the emotional Philadelphian who served the CYSO so well in his two seasons here. Where Mr. Running stomped the feet and stabbed the air to inspire his troops, Mr. Speck's kinder, gentler stick work coaxes the players in a less insistent manner.