QC youth orchestra earns Illinois honor
The Quad City Youth Symphony Orchestra has been named 2024 Orchestra of the Year in the youth category by the Illinois Council of Orchestras (ICO).
This week, the ICO announced the 2024 recipients of its annual awards for excellence in the field of music performance and for support of musical organizations.
An awards panel of judges drawn from the Illinois Council of Orchestras Board of Directors and independent professional musicians reviewed nominations representing orchestras, youth orchestras, and chamber ensembles from throughout Illinois, according to a press release.
“The Illinois Council of Orchestra’s is thrilled to recognize the impressive achievements by the Quad City Youth Symphony Orchestra for their continued dedication to music education in Illinois,” said Tim Corpus, the ICO board president. “Their high achieving arts program is a beacon within the state and a true benefit to the Quad Cities community.”
“I am absolutely thrilled and honored by the well-deserved recognition of our Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles and these incredibly inspiring young musicians,” QCSO executive director Brian Baxter said Wednesday by email. “They come from every part of the QC and we are thrilled for the acknowledgement from the ICO.”
Baxter and other QCSO staff are in Houston, Tex., this week to present at the League of American Orchestras 79th-annual national conference.
With QCSO marketing director Caitlin Lingle Bishop, and Chelsea Sammons, the orchestra’s director of education and community engagement, their panel on Friday afternoon will explore how orchestras can evolve to be more inclusive, youth-focused, and community-centric, all while ensuring financial sustainability.
“Through a multi-pronged approach to audience development, emphasizing inclusivity, youth engagement, and robust community partnerships, discuss how orchestral music can be accessible to all, especially underserved and diverse populations,” according to a presentation summary.
Highlighting the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s youth-centric initiatives, from Students @ Symphony, which invites school music groups to Masterworks performances, to the formation of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles Concert Club, attendees will discover how to nurture the next generation of orchestra enthusiasts and reinforce your community-centric entity, bringing people together through music.
The QCSO announced in late March that Hisham Bravo Groover was hired as assistant conductor of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Quad City Symphony Youth Ensembles.
He also is a new assistant professor of music and director of orchestral studies at Augustana College.
For more information on the QCYSE program, click HERE.
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