Aurora youth symphony concert, fundraiser Saturday
In just a few days, award-winning orchestras featuring highly trained musicians will take the stage for a benefit concert in Aurora.
And fortunately, the performance is on a Saturday so the musicians' curfews and bedtimes can be extended to accommodate the show. After all, festivities run until 11 p.m.
The performers, you see, range from grade school to high school age. Together, they are the Aurora Youth Symphony Orchestra and Aurora Youth Sinfonietta.
The AYSO organized five years ago and already is taking top honors at contests drawing competitors from around the country.
On Saturday, March 14, the orchestras will perform at "Uniting the World Through Music," the AYSO's annual fundraising dinner and auction.
"The dinner - (provides) the opportunity for our student musicians to perform selections of a type and in a venue they don't normally get," parent Leo Heska said. "It's a good chance for a bunch of music lovers to get together, have a good time and enjoy and support each others' skill and accomplishments."
Heska shares more about the orchestra and sinfonietta.
Q. What is the AYSO's mission?
A. To develop, educate and enrich life through music.
Q. How do you work toward accomplishing that goal?
A. We provide students with a safe, challenging, yet enjoyable place to learn, share and make music. We enable them to participate in a symphony orchestra and perform for the public. And we enable like-minded students with a love and/or aptitude for music to meet, collaborate, support, encourage and have fun with each other.
The two orchestras meet weekly. Major performances are twice yearly in the Paramount Theatre in Aurora. Before each performance, members learn new musical works, practice and are coached by Gregg Porter.
Members also may audition to perform as soloists, playing concertos backed by the AYSO. These auditions occur annually, and to date, four students each year have won this coveted opportunity.
In addition, individual students and small groups perform at our annual fundraising dinner, in competition, at semi-informal get-togethers and on field trips and tours, both local and foreign.
Q. When and why did the orchestras start? How have they grown?
A. Gregg Porter has been leading youth music groups for more than 20 years, including in Chicago and Elgin. Porter ascertained that the Aurora area could both benefit from and support a youth symphony, and five years ago he started the AYSO. Later, he started the sinfonietta.
In the beginning students met at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy until Porter successfully negotiated for the use of our current performance venue, the Paramount Theatre.
Q. What kind of successes have you had?
A. On three occasions during the AYSO's brief history, AYSO and/or the sinfonietta have competed in multistate competitions of 50- to 70-student orchestras and other musical groups, each time literally taking the top honors.
A crowning achievement in 2008 was winning the Music in the Parks contest in St. Louis, Mo., competing with bands, orchestras and choirs from more than 46 schools throughout the nation. The AYSO trip orchestra, consisting of half elementary and middle school students (from the younger sinfonietta), competed in the High School Orchestra division and took first place there, won first place overall in a field of 12 string and full orchestras, earned the highest score of all 34 middle school and high school bands and orchestras, and to top it all off, won the coveted "Esprit de Corps" award.
Also in 2008, AYSO musicians traveled to Spain, performing and touring in Barcelona, Santander and other locations. Spanish audiences appreciated the music, and AYSO students got an "opportunity of a lifetime" to perform and learn Spanish/European culture.
Q. What challenges does the organization currently face?
A. Fundraising is for us, like all nonprofit artistic organizations, a challenge. We purchase equipment, support students' private lessons and waive fees for needy students - all of which costs money.
However, our biggest challenge comes from our rapid growth. We're considering adding a third group, intermediate in age between the younger sinfonietta and the older AYSO. But it takes a lot of work to handle the logistics and organization of the two groups and the activities we already have. Porter is highly experienced, but the AYSO is only five years old and many of us are still learning and "making it up as we go along."
Q. What are the orchestras best known for in the community? How do they contribute to the community?
A. We're best known for our twice yearly concerts, performed at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora. The public does attend and enjoy these. One gentleman unaffiliated with AYSO was so inspired by a performance that he donated a set of percussion instruments. The upcoming concert will be at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 19.
Our charitable activity - providing music education to needy students - is, though significant, less well-known.
Q. What do you wish the community at large knew about the orchestras?
A. There is a widespread idea that kids these days have poor taste in music, have had their minds, motivations and attention spans ruined by electronics, are incapable of sustained, dedicated effort, and are uninterested in the classics and the arts.
Persons who believe this should come to one of our concerts. The music is beautiful and our young musicians' skill evident. There is no shortcut to building such skill. AYSO and sinfonietta concerts are evidence of dedication, concentration and hard work.
Rehearsals tell the same story - these kids are fun-loving and happy, yet dedicated and musically talented. When Porter or a student conductor picks up the baton, there's no chasing or goofing around, trying to avoid rehearsing. The musicians are "right there," and get right down to work, that is, to playing.
Q. Who are your members? What qualities do you look for in new members?
A. Membership is limited to elementary, middle and high school students who play orchestral instruments. Home-schoolers are welcome. The AYSO is for students of high school age; the sinfonietta for students of elementary and middle-school age. However, joining the orchestras is by audition, so skilled students may join the AYSO before high school age.
Currently, our approximately 150 AYSO and sinfonietta members come from Aurora, Batavia, Elburn, Geneva, Glen Ellyn, Griffin, Lisle, Montgomery, Naperville, North Aurora, Plainfield, Plano, South Elgin, St. Charles, Waterman, West Chicago and Yorkville. Students must be interested in orchestral music and performance, and must audition for membership.
The qualities we seek include a fairly high degree of musical skill for the student's age, the ability to relate well to both other children and adults, and a dedication to and enjoyment of the arts.
The orchestras are very skilled and accomplished for their ages and have won several regional awards. However, parents shouldn't hesitate to sign their child up for an audition if the student is interested in orchestral music or can be talked into trying out. Our groups aren't made up of professional musicians, but rather, children and teens. They are, first and foremost, learning groups.
Q. What do you expect of the students?
A. AYSO members typically practice around an hour a day or more - though not all do when they come in to the group; they are typically inspired to do so as they attend rehearsals and perform. Required weekly rehearsals last two hours for the AYSO and 11/2 hours for the sinfonietta. Students who attend public or private schools with bands or orchestras are required to participate in them.
But no one expects a child musician to be a dedicated professional. AYSO and sinfonietta rehearsals and activities are carried out in a spirit of support and enjoyment. The creative learning atmosphere is good.
Q. How can readers get involved?
A. Young musicians may audition for membership at various times throughout the year. Adults may volunteer by working with the AYSO Boosters. The group consists largely of parents who meet while their children rehearse.
If you go
What: Aurora Youth Symphony Orchestra Benefit Dinner
When: 5:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 14
Where: Pipers Banquet Hall, 1295 Butterfield Road, Aurora
Tickets: $50 for adults, $25 for children 12 and younger
Details: AYSO musicians will perform selections from around the world; auction items include a car, two Yamaha keyboards, a commissioned musical composition by an award-winning composer and tickets to the Cubs, Sox, Cubs/Sox, Bulls, Bears, Fire, Blackhawks and Cougars.
Reservations: Deborah Hensley at (630) 208-8944 or deborahsdesigns@sbcglobal.net; Jennifer Richardson at (630) 879-9249 or jlricha@hotmail.com
Info: AYSOBoosters.org