Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s 2019-20 Season at Severance Hall announced, featuring three Cleveland premieres
Third season under Music Director Vinay Parameswaran includes recent works by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Arvo Pärt, and Gabriella Smith
Under 18s Free continues for all COYO concerts
Subscription packages and individual tickets on sale now
CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) and its music director Vinay Parameswaran announced details of the 2019-20 season. The Youth Orchestra, under Mr. Parameswaran’s direction, will perform a three-concert series at Severance Hall on November 15, 2019, March 1, 2020 (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus), and May 3, 2020. Subscription packages and individual tickets are on sale now.
The 2019-20 season marks Vinay Parameswaran’s third as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.
“I’ve tried to create a group that’s versatile, that’s equally comfortable playing Mozart as it is playing a piece written this year,” said Mr. Parameswaran. “This new crop of students is up to the task; they realize the expectations we have in the group and they’re fitting in seamlessly. This season is really a season of exploration. The majority of the works that we’re playing have never been played by COYO before, and one work on each of the three concerts has never been played in Cleveland before, so it allows us to showcase the versatility of this orchestra. It’s going to be an exciting and challenging season for us, but all of us in the Cleveland community should be proud of what these young musicians can accomplish.”
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s 2019-20 Severance Hall season begins on Friday, November 15, 2019, at 8:00 p.m. with a program featuring the Cleveland premiere of American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark, a piece originally commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2016. The evening also includes Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 — performed by Annie Zhang, co-winner of the 2019 COYO Concerto Competition — and Sibelius’s Symphony No.2.
The Youth Orchestra’s Severance Hall concert series continues on Sunday, March 1, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus joins the Youth Orchestra in performances of Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer (soprano soloist to be announced) and the Cleveland premiere of Arvo Pärt’s In Principio. The concert will conclude with the 1945 suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s third and final concert will be on Sunday, May 3, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. The program begins with the Cleveland premiere of Tumblebird Contrails by Gabriella Smith, an American composer who was a classmate of Mr. Parameswaran at the Curtis Institute of Music. The concert also features a concerto spotlighting the winner of this season’s Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, and Debussy’s La Mer.
In addition to performances at Severance Hall, the COYO season includes concerts in nearby communities by both the full orchestra and by chamber ensembles comprised of COYO members. A Prelude Concert, featuring Youth Orchestra members performing chamber music, begins one hour before each Severance Hall concert in Reinberger Chamber Hall.
As part of an ongoing partnership with ideastream to provide greater access to music and culture, WCLV Classical 104.9 will present a live broadcast on-air and online of each of the three COYO concerts at Severance Hall during the 2019-20 season.
Center for Future Audiences: Under 18s Free
The Under 18s Free ticket program is available for all Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra performances. The Under 18s Free program offers complimentary tickets (one per regular-priced adult paid admission) to young people ages 7-17. The free tickets eligible for this program must be obtained through the Severance Hall Ticket Office. Under 18s Free is a program for young people, supported by The Cleveland Orchestra’s Center for Future Audiences. The Center, created with a lead endowment gift from the Maltz Family Foundation, was established to fund programs to develop new generations of audiences for Cleveland Orchestra concerts in Northeast Ohio.
Subscription and Ticket Information
Three-concert subscriptions to the Youth Orchestra’s 2019-20 Severance Hall season are currently on sale for $30 per seat, or $60 for a box seat. One Under 18s Free subscription is available with each adult subscription purchased (box seat subscriptions are not available in the Under 18s Free program). For more information or to order the three-concert package, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.
Individual performance tickets are available for $15 per seat or $25 for a box seat. For more information or to order tickets, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or order online at clevelandorchestra.com. Please note that Severance Restaurant will be open for all Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra concerts. For reservations, call 216-231-7373 or reserve online at clevelandorchestra.com.
About Vinay Parameswaran
Vinay Parameswaran began his tenure as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra as well as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in the 2017-18 season, marking The Cleveland Orchestra’s centennial. Mr. Parameswaran came to Cleveland following three seasons as Associate Conductor of the Nashville Symphony from 2014-17, where he led over 150 performances.
In the summer of 2017, Mr. Parameswaran was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Recent engagements have included his debuts with the North Carolina Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Eugene Symphony, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.
Equally at home conducting opera, Mr. Parameswaran has led acclaimed productions of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore with Curtis Opera Theater. He also assisted on a production of Verdi’s Nabucco with Opera Philadelphia.
Mr. Parameswaran is the conductor on the album Two x Four featuring the Curtis 20/21 ensemble as well as violinists Jaime Laredo and Jennifer Koh. Along with works by Bach, David Ludwig, and Philip Glass, the recording included Anna Clyne’s “Prince of Clouds,” which received a 2014 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. He has participated in conducting masterclasses with David Zinman at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, as well as with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Parameswaran played as a student for six years in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Political Science from Brown University, where he graduated with honors. At Brown, he began his conducting studies with Paul Phillips. He received a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Otto-Werner Mueller as the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow.
About the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) is a full symphonic ensemble comprised of approximately 100 young musicians drawn from 36 communities in 10 counties across Northern Ohio. COYO provides serious young music students of middle-high school age with a unique pre-professional orchestral training experience where they rehearse and perform in historic Severance Hall, are coached by the musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra, and are led by the Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.
Founded in 1986 by Jahja Ling (then resident conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra), COYO is part of a broad array of Cleveland Orchestra education and community programs designed to touch every child with music, foster a lifetime of engagement with music and The Cleveland Orchestra, unite our community through music, and nurture outstanding young musicians. In addition to the Youth Orchestra, other programs include the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus and Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus, Crescendo! (providing access to instruments and instruction for disadvantaged youth), the Music Explorers series for children ages 3 to 6, the PNC Grow Up Great “Musical Neighborhoods” program in inner-city Cleveland preschool classrooms, Cleveland Orchestra Family Concerts for ages 7 and up, Education Concerts for schoolchildren, Mindful Music Moments, Neighborhood Partners Program, Concert Previews and Music Study Groups for adults, and more. Each year, The Cleveland Orchestra reaches more than 100,000 people with its education and community programs. For more information, call the Orchestra’s Department of Education and Community Programs at 216-231-7355 or visit https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/education-and-community/overview/.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and by gifts from many other donors from across Northeast Ohio. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles. For more information, please visit http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/about/choruses-and-ensembles/youth-orchestra/.
About the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus (Daniel Singer, Director) will embark on its 29th season in 2019-20. Comprised of students in grades 9 through 12, the Youth Chorus helps raise awareness of choral music-making in the schools of Northeastern Ohio and encourages students to continue their choral activities through college and into adulthood. The Youth Chorus regularly collaborates with outstanding musical ensembles, and its 2019-20 season will include several concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, as well as a broad range of collaborative and independent performances throughout Greater Cleveland. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus is supported by the Edward and Ruth Wilkof Foundation. For more information, please visit http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/Education-and-Community/Youth-Ensembles/Cleveland-Orchestra-Youth-Chorus/.
Calendar Listing
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
2019-20 Severance Hall Season
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Friday, November 15, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor
Annie Zhang, cello
SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER Something for the Dark – Cleveland premiere
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No. 1
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2
Prelude Concert at 7:00 p.m. featuring Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra members performing chamber music.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and by gifts from many other donors from across Northeast Ohio. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles.
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH CHORUS
Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 7:00 p.m
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus
Daniel Singer, director
MENDELSSOHN Hear My Prayer
PÄRT In Principio – Cleveland premiere
STRAVINSKY The Firebird, Suite from 1945
Prelude Concert at 6:00 p.m. featuring Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus members performing chamber music.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and by gifts from many other donors from across Northeast Ohio. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus is supported by the Edward and Ruth Wilkof Foundation.
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Sunday, May 3, 2020 at 3:00 p.m.
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor
Program includes:
GABRIELLA SMITH Tumblebird Contrails – Cleveland premiere
DEBUSSY La Mer
Prelude Concert at 2:00 p.m. featuring Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra members performing chamber music.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and by gifts from many other donors from across Northeast Ohio. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles.
All programs, artists, and prices are subject to change.