Do you hear the future? Many students are a part of band and orchestra, but some of those students take music outside of the classroom to the Kansas City Youth Symphony, a program for young aspiring musicians. There are four groups of 50 to 100 students in each. Their first concert was October 7 where they played at First Fridays, downtown KC.

There were many rehearsals for the KC Youth Symphony’s First Fridays concert. On October 9 Symphony rehearsed at Gem Theatre. The Symphony’s sound echoed through the whole theatre, their tone was rich and it didn’t sound like they made any mistakes. Conductor Steve Davis led them through each measure one by one, with attention to every detail.

After the final concert, Davis was pleased with his group’s performance, “I think we did great!” he said. “It was a fun concert for the community outdoors at First Friday’s and was nice to combine two orchestras.”

If you missed the KC Youth Symphony’s first concert, don’t fret, their next concert is next month, Sunday November 20 at the Folly Theatre.

Before performing at concerts or rehearsing for the KC Youth Symphony,

students must audition to get into the

KC Youth Symphony.

“It was a lot of preparation and a lot of practice spent on it to make it in this high of a group,” sophomore percussionist Jacob Fullinwider said.

After auditioning in front of judges, the musicians get put into one of the four groups: Debut is conducted by Russ Pieken, Philharmonic conducted by LHS’s orchestra teacher Michelle Davis, Academy conducted by Russell Berlin Jr., then Symphony is conducted by Steve Davis. Each group gives students the chance to improve skills and to perform with a full orchestra filled with strings, winds, brass and percussion.

“Playing with a whole orchestra with strings, winds and percussion is a lot different than just winds and percussion,” freshman bassoon player Katie Martin said.

The KC Youth Symphony connects musicians from all over the KC area. They are able to share their love of music with others and play music they usually wouldn’t play at school.

“I like being able to play actual music instead of music we get in class and getting to play with wind and brass instruments,” junior violest Zoe Moody said.

With the more advanced music these

students really push themselves to be the

best musicians they can be.

“My goal is to really dive into a whole bunch of orchestral arrangements and to get to know all types of people and to play my best all year round,” Fullinwider said.

Rehearsals for the Youth Symphony are on Sundays from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Usually they break up the time working with the winds and strings, then the second half is the whole group playing together.

“Students have been working very hard preparing for our First Friday’s performance and our November concert. Most have private teachers and practice daily for their lessons and orchestra music,” conductor Michelle Davis said.

The final rehearsals before concerts are always the most important. Groups will split off according to what instrument they play and go over their parts. Many of these students practice on their own time, going over spots in the music where they have trouble.

“We do full run throughs of each piece and do last minute tweaking or correcting to the music making sure everyone understands where they need to be at what time,” Martin said.

For all of this advanced music there is a lot of work for these students. Hear the future now with KC Youth Symphony.