YOUNG MUSICIANS ABROAD!

Two young musicians from Fresno County are touring Europe right now with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. They are part of a 93-member orchestra made up of musicians from all over the US who are 16 to 19 years of age.

From the NYOUSA website:

Each summer, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI) brings together the brightest young players from across the country to form the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), a free program for all participants. Following a comprehensive audition process and a multi-week training residency with leading professional orchestra musicians, these remarkable teenagers embark on a tour to some of the great music capitals of the world while serving as dynamic music ambassadors.

Lela Buck, oboe, and Cade Peckham, double bass, both hail from Clovis. Lela, a student of retired Fresno Philharmonic oboist Rachel Aldrich, will enter the Juilliard School as a freshman this fall. Cade, a student of retired Indiana University Jacobs School of Music professor Bruce Bransby, will be a junior at University High School this fall. Both are longtime members of the Youth Orchestras of Fresno.

The tour includes performances in Berlin, Germany, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and both Aldeburgh and Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.

Conductor Karina Canellakis is on the podium, with Kirill Gerstein at the piano, in a program that includes the Barber Overture to The School for Scandal, The Gershwin Piano Concerto in F, and the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.

Sounds like a blast!