By Andrea Cassutt, Executive Director

Last weekend, the Youth Symphony Orchestra (YSO) and the Youth Philharmonic  (YP), more than 80 kids, headed out to Glorieta Camps for a weekend of fun, bonding, instrumental coaching, rehearsal and performance.

The retreat was arranged and lead by our wonderful ensemble conductors, William Waag (also SFYSA Director of Orchestras), and Ryan Finn. The retreat weekend is part of our annual programming and included in the cost of tuition. Both Mr. Waag and Mr. Finn draw forth and inspire excellence and musicianship from their students and ensembles, and they are two guys who also like to have fun! Sometimes in our world excellence goes with being serious, and here at SFYSA we all like to pair excellence and fun.

Dorothy Bowers Wu, one of our flute coaches (and also SFYSA’s new Associate Elementary Strings Director) said after the retreat, “The flutists were tons of fun to work with! The YSO flutes are a really strong section and responded quickly and sensitively to my suggestions for working out balance and intonation as a section. We talked about flute technique as it relates to playing in tune when there are a lot of people playing unison, and across a wide dynamic range.”

Our SFYSA Strings Coach, Dana Winograd, shared that “it was the best part of my weekend!  I got to witness a lot of great teaching and a lot of professional and student bonding.  Waag and Finn are creating and maintaining a great culture. Super happy to be a part of it.”

Professional support for the retreat included Head Clinician: Kathleen Hill, a widely celebrated string educator in New Mexico. Presently she conducts the Albuquerque Youth Orchestra, and she conducted the New Mexico All-State Concert Orchestra in 2016, and about ten (10) Sectional Clinicians who are an excellent mix of professional symphony musicians and music educators from New Mexico who worked with individual sections in both YSO and YP.
 
On Sunday afternoon, all parents gathered for a wonderful concert featuring both the YP ensemble and the YSO playing outdoors under a beautiful blue sky and sharing the great work they put in and the music they had begun to create together. One of the parents said to me as I was leaving, “This was just the best old fashioned fun. As it should be. Classical music outdoors with a picnic on a beautiful afternoon.”

These studies prove that learning a musical instrument increases grey matter volume in various brain regions, It also strengthens the long-range connections between them. Additional research shows that musical training can enhance verbal memory, spatial reasoning, and literacy skills.
 
“Brain scanning studies have found that the anatomical change in musicians' brains is related to the age when training began. It shouldn't be surprising, but learning at a younger age causes the most drastic changes.”
 
See the full article for additional benefits to learning an instrument and playing music!
 
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By Andrea Cassutt, Executive Director

This summer on August 12, 2017 at the Santa Fe Railyard, a number of our Jazz ensemble musicians joined local artists in a tribute to David Bowie. Building upon the success of the summer 2016 Santa Fe Salute to Prince, local Santa Fe-based musicians united once again to honor a lost musical genius. Santa Fe Salutes David Bowie presented a diverse array of some of Santa Fe's finest musicians performing their favorite Bowie songs. The three-hour show featured a house band of Santa Fe music scene stalwarts backing a steady stream of special guests. This timely tribute brought together a wide range of the city's best creative talents to honor the legacy of the late, great, David Bowie.

SFYSA jazz ensemble musicians had the opportunity to join the house band on several songs, and were special guests on the song Modern Love that features a full section of jazz saxophones!  SFYSA Jazz Director and one of the event coordinators, Christopher Ishee said, “Everyone in the core band was super-stoked to be able to get our kids involved, and they were impressed by how they handled the pressure!”

SFYSA is always looking for performance opportunities for our students and particularly the great learning experience of playing with professional musicians. Our students were able to use this performance to learn how a horn section works in a contemporary music setting, and to create a reference point for showing up for a professional gig. There was very little rehearsal time for everyone involved in the event, and our students came through with flying colors.
 
A special thank you to Delmone Taylor -- professional saxophonist, educated at the University of New Mexico, who has played professionally for 23 years and shared the stage with many top artists including The Temptations, KISS, Steel Pulse, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Joe Alessi of the New York Philharmonic, and others -- for his support and willingness to let our saxophone section take over for Modern Love.