USM Youth Ensembles Spring concert in Merrill Auditorium

The USM Youth Ensembles, administrated by the University of Southern Maine School of Music with support from the Sam L. Cohen Foundation, is the premier youth orchestra in the state, attracting some of the most outstanding musicians in northern New England.

Four of the ensembles -- The Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra, The Portland Youth Wind Ensemble, The Portland Youth Junior Orchestra, and the Young Peoples’ String Consort – will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17, 2008, in Merrill Auditorium of Portland City Hall, just off Congress Street. Suggested donation is $6 for adults, and $3 for students. Call 780-5555 for more information. A reception will follow in the rehearsal room.

“The USM School of Music is proud to manage this program, with its rich history of service to young people that stretches back generations,” says Scott Harris, director of the School of Music. “The ensembles amplify upon and benefit from our commitment to excellence in undergraduate education and graduate-level professional training. What links these various educational endeavors is our desire to provide extraordinary musical experiences for all participants. We count ourselves fortunate to be able to nurture in rehearsal and present in performance the energy, enthusiasm, and talent of these young musicians—they inspire us all!”

The Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra will also participate in a Side by Side rehearsal with the Portland Symphony Orchestra at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in Merrill Auditorium, under the baton of the new PSO conductor Robert Moody. Contact the PSO at 773-6128 for more information.  Before the concert gets underway, the Martha Blood Scholarship will be awarded to an outstanding member of the program. Name TBA
 
The Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Lehmann, will begin the concert with highlights from “Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64” by Sergei Prokofiev. Sections include “The Montagues and The Capulets,” “The Young Juliet,”  “Friar Lawrence,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Masks” and “Tybalt's Death.”

“We’re playing six selections which is about a third of the music,” says Lehmann. He notes that these suites were extracted from the full score of the ballet.  “In them the audience will hear the Shakespearean masterpiece in music. Prokofiev has captured the essence of the characters and scenes.”

Peter Martin will conduct the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble performing “Huldigungsmarsch” by Richard Wagner, edited by William A. Schafer; “With Brightness Round About It” by Nancy Galbraith; and “Ghost Train” by Eric Whitacre.

The Portland Young Peoples’ String Consort – conducted by Debby Dabczynski – will perform the March from “Six Easy Pieces, Op. 22” by Edward Elgar; two period pieces, the second movement of “Musik of Shakespeare's Daye” by William Brade and “The King's Galliard” by John Dowland; “Shanty” by Richard Meyer; and Hopak from “The Fair at Sorochinsk” by Moussorgsky.
 
Dan Keller conducts the Portland Youth Junior Orchestra in two movements of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Sinfonia No. 5 in B flat”; two pieces from “Henry V” by William Walton, “Death of Falstaff” and “Touch Her Soft Lips and Part”; and will conclude with  “Satisfaction” arranged by John Reed.