The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras has embarked on several partnerships with Seattle-area arts organizations, including a just-completed Oklahoma Project with the 5th Avenue Theatre. In that partnership—which culminated in three student performances of Oklahoma! on March 16 and 17 at the 5th Avenue Theatre—students learned about orchestration in musical theater and symphonic scores, under the direction of SYSO Music Director Stephen Rogers Radcliffe and Oklahoma Project Orchestra Conductor Faith Seeto. Students in the Oklahoma Project were mentored by professional musicians who played in the pit for the 5th Avenue Theatre’s run of Oklahoma! that preceded the student production. Future SYSO partners include the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s PNB School for a June 2012 “Performer’s Exchange” in which musicians and dancers will discuss practice routines, how they learn their craft, and the ways dancers and musicians respond to music. In 2012, the SYSO will collaborate with Seattle Opera for the world premiere of a three-chamber-opera cycle called Our Earth, commissioned by the Seattle Opera’s Department of Education, which will tackle themes of conservation and endangered species in the Puget Sound region.
Posted April 3, 2012
