Viola player Rachel Barnett, of Westminster, has been announced as one of 120 young musicians from across America who have been selected to come together this summer as the second annual National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.
The members of the 2014 orchestra - ages 16 to 19, hailing from 33 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico - have been recognized by Carnegie Hall as being among the finest players in the country following a comprehensive audition process, according to a Carnegie Hall news release. This summer's NYO-USA will feature 26 returning musicians from the 2013 inaugural orchestra.
The members of the NYO-USA will travel to New York in early July to begin their intensive two-week training residency on the campus of Purchase College, State University of New York, working with principal players from some of the country's best professional orchestras.
The orchestra will be led by dynamic American conductor David Robertson and joined by virtuoso violinist Gil Shaham as soloist in summer 2014. Following the two-week residency, NYO-USA will embark on an eight-city, coast-to-coast U.S. tour, introducing concertgoers across the country to the extraordinary music-making of their nation's youth orchestra, according to the release.
The 2014 U.S. tour will begin at the Performing Arts Center in Purchase, N.Y., July 20, followed by the orchestra's Carnegie Hall debut in New York City July 22, a performance to be heard by music lovers worldwide via the Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series, created in partnership with WQXR and American Public Media.
The orchestra's tour continues with appearances at Ozawa Hall in Lenox, Mass., as part of the Tanglewood music festival July 24; Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts in Boone, N.C., at An Appalachian Summer Festival July 26; the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park as part of Grant Park Music Festival July 28; Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyo., July 30 as part of Grand Teton Music Festival; Weill Hall at Sonoma State University's Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, Calif., August 2; and culminating at The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Calif., August 4.
The concert program to be performed at all tour venues will include the premiere of a new work from American composer Samuel Carl Adams, commissioned by Carnegie Hall especially for NYO-USA; Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story"; Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto with Mr. Shaham; and Ravel's arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, according to the release.
Tickets for the Carnegie Hall concert will go on sale to the general public April 15.
Advertisement