PYP HOSTS LIVE STREAM TO ANNOUNCE NEW ENSEMBLE IN MEMORY OF PORTLAND PERCUSSIONIST LEO LESTER BROWN
Posted on July 10, 2018
PORTLAND, OR – 95 years ago, pioneer violin teacher Mary V. Dodge established the Portland Junior Symphony to provide high quality music education and training for young musicians throughout the Pacific Northwest. Renamed the Portland Youth Philharmonic in 1978, PYP continues to uphold the standards that Dodge established in 1924 when this orchestra became the prototype for all youth orchestras across the country. PYP is proud to continue Mary Dodge’s commitment to music education with the creation of a new Percussion Ensemble, made possible by an endowment from the estate of the late beloved Portland teacher and percussionist Leo Lester Browne (1922 – 2017). This generous gift establishes “The Leo Lester Browne Charitable Fund, recognizing a lifetime dedicated to excellence in music education and performance.”
“Thanks to Mr. Browne’s legacy gift, PYP’s new Percussion Ensemble will be able to offer an important educational and performance opportunity for young percussionists,” says PYP Musical Director David Hattner. “Percussion is a craft of many different skills, and is difficult to teach comprehensively through large ensemble performance. An entire season may go by without calling for all of the important percussion instruments to be played. Having an ensemble dedicated solely to percussion music will give each musician an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of all the basic instruments and some unusual ones as well.”
To announce the endowment gift and the launch of the new ensemble, Hattner will host a live stream on Monday, July 16, 2018, at noon on PYP’s YouTube channel, providing more details and answering audience questions submitted through social media. He will be joined by Browne’s cousin Brad Owens, who made the gift to PYP.
The Percussion Ensemble will add approximately six more students to the roster of over 300 musicians currently in PYP’s other four ensembles. The PYP Percussion Ensemble will provide aspiring young percussionists throughout Oregon and Washington with the opportunity to receive instruction from expert local professionals. Auditions for this ensemble, as well as PYP’s other ensembles, will take place in August 2018. The PYP Percussion Ensemble will rehearse weekly on Wednesdays at Jackson Middle School in Southwest Portland, and perform regularly with the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble in the Skyview Auditorium in North Vancouver, WA. Audition details and applications may be found here.