PORTLAND YOUTH PHILHARMONIC LAUNCHES HISTORIC 97TH SEASON WITH FIRST EVER PYP NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL, FEATURING 14 WORLD PREMIERES BY WOMEN AND COMPOSERS OF COLOR
Posted on September 16, 2020
PORTLAND, OR – Earlier this week, Portland Youth Philharmonic’s conducting staff revealed the organization’s plans for fall 2020 on YouTube. David Hattner, PYP’s Musical Director, was joined for a livesteam conversation by Lawrence Johnson (conductor of PYP’s Conservatory Orchestra), Inés Voglar Belgique (conductor of PYP’s Young String Ensemble), and Giancarlo Castro D’Addona (conductor of PYP’s Wind Ensemble). The artistic team proudly announced the first ever PYP New Music Festival, a two-day virtual concert event featuring world premieres of 14 brand new works commissioned especially for PYP’s historic 97th concert season. #PYPFEST will take place on Saturday, November 14, 2020, at 7:00 PM, and Sunday, November 15, 2020, at 2:00 PM. The digital concert presentations will feature new works composed primarily by women and musicians of color, as part of the recently launched Youth Orchestra Commissioning Initiative.
“We will unveil 14 brand new works and some more surprises on Vimeo in November, as part of our first ever PYP New Music Festival,” David Hattner said on the orchestra’s recent YouTube livestream. “Our conducting staff thought it would be a good idea to craft new music for our musicians to perform, as a way to inspire them and expose them to living composers. These composers include primarily women and people of color, whose voices have at many times been excluded from orchestral programming.”
#PYPFEST marks the first public performance of commissioned works to come out of the new Youth Orchestra Commissioning Initiative (YOCI), which PYP is spearheading. The collaborative project establishes a consortium that currently includes the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS of Portland, OR) and New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS of New Providence, NJ). YOCI strives to connect young musicians with composers who will write new, short chamber music pieces for groups of diverse instrumentation to be rehearsed, performed, and recorded from musicians’ individual homes. A primary goal of this initiative is to address the systemic exclusion of composers of color and women from the standard classical repertoire, by showcasing new music composed primarily by professionals identifying with those groups. Interested youth orchestras and composers may visit youthorchestras.org to learn more or to join the consortium.
For its part of the Initiative, PYP commissioned 14 brand new pieces over the summer for their 292 enrolled musicians to learn and perform together over Zoom. #PYPFEST will share the young musicians’ efforts with anyone who registers to receive the link in November. Commissioned composers include Efraín Amaya, Lauren Bernofsky, Laura Brackney, Giancarlo Castro D’Addona, Kate Davis (PYP alumna, class of 2009), Darrell Grant, Deena T. Grossman, Jessica Meyer, Polina Nazaykinskaya, Keyla Orozco, Jeff Scott, and James M. Stephenson. The list of composers and their bios can be found at youthorchestras.org/composers1.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, “tickets” to the PYP New Music Festival are offered on a “pay what you can” fee structure. To get an email with the links to watch from home in November, viewers may visit Portland Youth Philharmonic’s website at portlandyouthphil.org/fest to register for free or pay what they can. Even though a free “ticket” is available, all viewers must fill out the registration form to receive the links. Everyone who registers will receive the same concert links and a digital PDF of the concert program by email. All payments made on the #PYPFEST registration form (except for the purchase of physical concert programs) will count as a tax-deductible donation. Festival attendees will receive a confirmation email receipt for any amount to use as documentation on their taxes. “Ticket” payments of $100 or more will also receive a physical acknowledgement letter from the organization in the mail.
To learn more about PYP’s first ever New Music Festival and to register to receive links to watch the virtual performances, visit portlandyouthphil.org/concerts.
Other 2020 PYP concerts may be heard on: Thursday, October 22, 2020, at 7:00 PM, when All Classical Portland will air a pre-recorded performance from PYP’s recent 96th season as part of the station’s nine-part Fall into the Arts: A Radio Festival of Local Performances; and Saturday, December 26, 2020, at 7:00 PM, when Portland Youth Philharmonic, the nation’s first and oldest youth orchestra, will present a virtual performance for their 59th annual Concert-at-Christmas.