The Vermont Youth Orchestra pulls in young musicians from around northern Vermont who rehearse all year for a big concert of classical music performed at the highest caliber each spring in Burlington. This year’s program will feature not only the best young musicians of our region, but also spotlight a young woman from East Middlebury. Greta Hardy-Mittell, a senior at Middlebury Union High School, will play as the senior soloist in Camille Saint-Sae?ns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor.
The VYO spring concert, called “Tchaikovsky in Vermont – Celebrating Mastery,” will take place on Sunday, May 6, at 3 p.m. at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts.
Music Director and conductor Benjamin Klemme will lead the VYO in a performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 in its entirety; this concluded the orchestra’s yearlong exploration of this work and the Tchaikovsky in Vermont project. Also on the program is the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association’s Percussion Ensemble playing “Fanfare for Tambourines” by John Alfieri and Saint-Sae?ns’s “Danse Macabre, in addition to the first movement of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor.
Hardy-Mittell studies piano with Cynthia Huard, who also teaches at Middlebury College and the Middlebury Community Music Center. For three years, Greta has played with Vermont Youth Orchestra Association ensembles as a clarinetist and has participated in Vermont All-State and New England music festivals. In addition to being a multi-instrumentalist, Greta is active in Vermont’s literary and activist communities. She will be joined on stage in Sunday’s performance by her sister, Anya, on violin, as well as several other Addison County youths.
With a mission “to develop young people as artists, citizens, and leaders through the shared pursuit of musical excellence,” the VYOA is committed to providing instrumental and choral experiences for students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Over 300 students in grades 1-12 from across Vermont and neighboring states participate in VYOA’s three orchestras, two choruses, string training ensembles, community engagement programs, and summer camps, making it region’s premier youth orchestra and chorus program. All of our students leave the VYOA with a respect for music, for learning, and for the arts; attributes that will enhance and inform their adult lives in our communities and beyond.
Admission to Sunday’s Flynn Center performance is adults/seniors $17; students $12. Purchase tickets by calling 802-86-Flynn or heading online to flynntix.org.
More information about the VYOA is at vyo.org.