This week, BYSO welcomes young musicians from Leipzig as part of an exciting cultural exchange program with BYSO musicians! Read all about it in the Boston Globe. The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO) celebrates its 60th anniversary during the 2017-18 season. The mission and vision remains much the same as when Dr. Marvin Rabin started the (Greater) Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1958: to encourage musical excellence in a professional and supportive environment by providing the highest quality orchestra training and performance opportunities to qualified musicians, grades K-12, while making its programs accessible to underserved communities through financial assistance and outreach.  At its founding in 1958, BYSO was a single orchestra of 80 young players. Today, it is one of the country’s most highly regarded youth orchestra programs, an organization at the vanguard of music education that serves over 600 students each year. On April 29, 2018 at 3:30pm at Symphony Hall in Boston, many of BYSO’s young musicians will have the opportunity to perform in a joint concert with choral students from Leipzig, Germany as part of an international exchange and in honor of BYSO’s 60^th anniversary season. The week leading up to the April 29^th concert, BYSO will host the Leipzig choirs for this special celebration as part of a new international residency and exchange initiative, welcoming the Leipzig Gewandhaus Youth Choir and the Leipzig Opera Youth Choir to Boston for musical rehearsals and cultural exchange opportunities in anticipation of their joint April 29^th performance under the direction of BYSO Music Director, Federico Cortese. BYSO’s 60^th anniversary season will culminate with BYSO musicians traveling to Leipzig in June to perform with their youth choirs at Bachfest – the world’s foremost annual international festival focusing on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries. Performances will be held in Leipzig market square and at the prestigious Gewandhaus concert hall. BYSO has traveled to over 20 foreign countries on nearly 30 national and international tours during its 60 year history.

Catherine Weiskel, BYSO's Executive Director stated: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to create such a culturally enriching experience for our musicians both in Boston and in Leipzig. In today’s world it is ever more important to understand and experience other cultures, values and history. To gain such an experience through music making is something that will have a lasting impact on our students for the rest of their lives."

The first phase of this exchange will be performed at Symphony Hall – within the frame of BYSO’s 60th anniversary: Sunday, April 29^th at 3:30pm | Symphony Hall Boston Youth Symphony (BYS) Federico Cortese, Music Director and Conductor MESSIAEN Les offrandes oubliées COPLAND Four Motets BERNSTEIN Chichester Psalms RAVEL Daphnis and Chloe, Suite Nos. 1 and 2 with Leipzig Gewandhaus Youth Choir and Leipzig Opera Youth Choir   Also performing: BYSO’s Repertory Orchestra (REP) Mark Miller, Conductor WAGNER Overture to The Flying Dutchman   BYSO’s Young People’s String Orchestra (YPSO) Marta Żurad, Conductor   Tickets start at $25; call Symphony Charge at (617) 266-1200. This performance is only recommended for children 5 years of age and older.   The two concerts scheduled in June in Leipzig, German at Bachfest with BYSO and the Leipzig Choirs are: Friday, June 8, 2018, 8:00 pm, Leipzig market square concert Sunday, June 10, 2018, 6:00 pm, Leipzig Gewandhaus concert Students will be performing pieces by Bach, Bernstein, Copland and Mendelssohn

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The Opera Leipzig Youth Chorus was founded by Sophie Bauer in 2007. It offers young singers the opportunity to perform on the operatic stage, in concerts, and in self-designed artistic projects. In the years since its founding, the Youth Chorus has had a number of significant achievements, including the staged realization of C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, Musikalische Tötungsdelikte, or Musical Homicides, which was created in cooperation with the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater, as well as the live silent-film project Häxan. The Youth Chorus is currently working on a project entitled Warehouse Life.   The Leipzig Gewandhaus Youth Choir The GewandhausJugendchor is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. Founded by former members of the GewandhausKinderchor, the GewandhausJugendchor has developed from a group of eight teenagers to a semi-professional ensemble with about 50 singers between the ages of fifteen and twenty five.  The choir, together with their musical director, Frank-Steffen Elster, has toured throughout Germany and Europe, giving concerts in Hohenerxleben, Waldheim and South-Tirol. In 2016 the GewandhausJugendchor performed in the opening concert of the Schumann Festival Week in Leipzig; the choir has also performed at the Bachfest Leipzig (German-Chinese Choir Academy 2015 conducted by Hermann Max) and in the concert series “Klassik airleben” with Riccardo Chailly.  During its anniversary season in 2017/18 the ensemble is filling its busy schedule with performances for a cinematic project at the Schaubühne Lindenfels, its first concert with the new Gewandhaus-Kapellmeister Andris Nelsons and with its participation in the German-American Youth Academy “b@ch for us” in in Boston and in Bachfest Leipzig.   https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2018/04/12/young-boston-musicians-build-bridge-leipzig/u2IfyD9jNGeba7cGvUyiuO/story.html Thanks for the following support: