The Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra is headed to the Big Apple—and we’re all invited to help see them off. In June, the 70 members of the ensemble’s Tour Orchestra and Tour Jazz Band will spend five days studying and performing at some of the most prestigious venues in New York City.
But before they leave, they’ll play a free concert for the hometown crowd to keep their chops up for the road and give us all a glimpse of how they intend to represent us as musical ambassadors to the theatrical capital of the country. The concert is slated for Tuesday, June 16, at 7 p.m., at the Valencia College East Campus Performing Arts Center.
The Tour Orchestra will perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Op. 96, Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia and the “Rákóczy March” from Hector Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust. At press time, selections were still being made by the Tour Jazz Band.
Highlights of FSYO’s trip will include the Tour Orchestra’s third appearance in the Isaac Stern Auditorium at the city’s prestigious Lincoln Center. Meanwhile, the Tour Jazz Band, which has never before visited the Big Apple, will learn from the seasoned clinicians of Jazz at Lincoln Center, participate in a nighttime jam session and perform at The Jazz Gallery on Sunday, June 21, at 11 a.m.
That’s plenty for one whirlwind visit, but the FSYO Summer Tour Program has a pretty strong pedigree when it comes to helping up-and-coming musicians see the world. Past editions have brought local next-gen players to locations as far-flung as Japan, Chicago, Italy and China.
The New York City jaunt will kick off the orchestra’s 70th anniversary season. So, appropriately enough, the bon voyage concert that precedes it will be bookended with another major hometown event sure to keep the home fires burning: Abigail Tran, executive director, is planning for the FSYO to wrap up the season with a Spring 2027 concert in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center.
Valencia College East Campus is located at 701 North Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando. For more information, call or visit the website.
