“We went on tour, and I remember being on stage, and I am certain that it changed my life because I have never felt anything like that felt.”
– Anthony McGill, CYSO ’94 (Principal Clarinet, New York Philharmonic)
Dear Friends,
We are thrilled our flagship Symphony Orchestra is departing soon on our 17th international tour. The tour includes performances in major concert halls throughout Spain including at the renowned Granada Festival, where we will be presented among top European professional orchestras and ensembles. This is an exceptional invitation for any orchestra in the world!
Before we leave, we hope you will join us at the Grant Park Music Festival on Thursday, June 12 to celebrate our musical and cultural journey. In addition to being ambassadors for our city and our country, we are ambassadors for American music and American music education. Our tour program will include the music of Americans Samuel Barber and Margaret Bonds and will end with Tchaikovsky’s beloved Fifth Symphony.
We believe an orchestra provides an unparalleled environment to educate, encourage, and empower young people: we learn to listen to one another while developing our own voices, harmonizing our differences in a musical community and creating and strengthening social bonds. This is how and why we inspire and cultivate personal excellence through music.
We are also in the final weeks of our spring appeal, where we are providing a much higher level of student financial aid this season. All our programs–whether for our symphonic, string, steel, or jazz orchestras–are not covered by tuition. Many of our students require significant financial aid, including participation in touring. We ask you to invest with us in the future of music and the next generation of leaders on and off the stage!
Warm regards,
Allen
CYSO Music Director
Are there any ideas or themes in the music for this concert?
The program includes the music of Samuel Barber–one of the most influential American composers–who lived from 1910 to 1981. This season we included two works of Barber and often program his works for our Symphony Orchestra. As we lead up to celebrating America’s 250th birthday next year, we will continue to highlight American works and celebrate a wide range of American voices.
Margaret Bonds was born and raised in Chicago and lived from 1913 until 1972. She was the first Black soloist with the CSO as a pianist, but she was also a composer and is now recognized as an important American composer. Of course Tchaikovsky is one of the most famous Russian composers in all of orchestral music from the late 19th century. I chose these works to give an interesting variety of musical languages, though they all have a basically romantic sensibility.
While Margaret Bonds is receiving more attention in recent years, her larger works were relatively unknown and many have been lost as she often sent original manuscripts as gifts to dedicatees. Only about fifty works were published in her lifetime with over one hundred lost. Her Montgomery Variations is perhaps her most important known orchestra work. It was composed in 1964 in response to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The theme is based on a spiritual called “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me.”
The Bonds and Tchaikovsky are similar in that they are both cyclical works, meaning one theme permeates the entire work. The Montgomery Variations is a theme and variations, so it is normal that one theme carries through the entire work, but Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 is one of the first symphonies that has a single theme appearing in all four movements. It is presented at the very beginning and you will hear it in the clarinets.
Why is international touring important for an orchestra?
There are two reasons touring is important for any orchestra, youth or professional. One is to build reputation and the other is to build cohesion. As a youth orchestra, when we take international tours, we are ambassadors for American music and American music education. This includes groundbreaking and adventurous programming of American voices. On previous tours, we have played American premieres or have been the first to play works of important American composers such as George Walker.
Building reputation is about the music and especially our level of performance of that music. I feel we have a responsibility to play American composers on tour overseas, and this is why we are playing Samuel Barber again–which we have played on most of our tours over the last two decades––as well as why we are highlighting the music of Margaret Bonds alongside a major and beloved symphonic orchestra work.
As for cohesion, touring is an intensive and immersive experience and pushes our students to grow not only musically but personally. I love how one of our recent alumnus, Jaime García-Añoveros (CYSO ’24), eloquently put this: “In just ten days on tour, I created deep, genuine friendships with my peers; learning about different cultures, exploring ancient cities, and rehearsing for hours united the members of our orchestra in a joyful pursuit of excellence. We felt like a single, cohesive entity, and the music echoed that.”
While tour is a culmination of our musical journey together this season, it is a completely new cultural journey for many of our students. This is one of the reasons an orchestra has such power to bring people together. I often share a quote from one of our first alumni: “An orchestra promotes the oneness of people where we can address each other openly and honestly.” – Richard Davis (CYSO ’48 )
