FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katie English, 267-974-1250
The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra 2011 Gala Friday, March 11, 6:00 p.m. at The Union League of Philadelphia
Nonprofit’s annual fundraiser includes a concert from students in PYO’s Tune Up Philly and the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra for hundreds of attendees. Artwork silent auction to benefit Tune Up Philly.
Philadelphia, PA – March 8, 2011. (Download PDF) This Friday, March 11 at 6:00 p.m. at The Union League of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) will hold its largest fundraiser of the year with a performance from students in PYO’s Tune Up Philly and the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra for hundreds of attendees. Today, PYO announced that the artwork from Philadelphia’s Studio Incamminati sold at the gala of PYO students will benefit the nonprofit’s Tune Up Philly program.
Conducted by Maestro Scaglione, more than 100 students in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra will perform Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite at the gala. A small ensemble from the organization’s new after-school program, Tune Up Philly, will also perform. The 2011 gala is chaired by MaryTeresa Soltis, Esq., Partner with Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia. Gala attendees will have the opportunity to watch artists from Studio Incamminati paint music-themed still lifes during the cocktail hour, as well as bid on previously-created drawings of the young musicians in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra to benefit Tune Up Philly.
“In the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra’s 71st season, this gala is particularly special,” said Maestro Louis Scaglione, President and Music Director of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. “We are proud to be one of the oldest youth orchestras in the United States and appreciate the support of our friends, community, Studio Incamminati and The Union League of Philadelphia. The performance offered by the students in Tune Up Philly and the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra will be a spectacular ending to a festive evening.”
The high school and college students involved in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra are chosen each year through competitive audition. PYO commenced its 2010/2011 season on December 4; more than twenty concerts are offered this season from PYO and its ensembles.
Tune Up Philly is the new, after-school musical education program of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra at St. Francis de Sales School in West Philadelphia designed to nurture urban children living in challenging social and economic conditions by keeping them engaged in success through weekday out-of-school hour’s musical instruction. Most of the 80 students in Tune Up Philly did not previously study classical music. Instructed by a dozen local, professional musicians, the students in Tune Up Philly train five days a week with concentrations in woodwind, brass, strings, percussion, choral and general music education. The program commenced in September 2010 and will run through July 2011, offering free concerts to the public. The program is funded through a matching grant by PYO Board of Trustees member, Carole Haas Gravagno.
Studio Incamminati, led by Founder and Artistic Director Nelson Shanks, is a teaching school in Philadelphia for artists dedicated to the study and practice of contemporary realist art. Modeled on the traditional Italian academia and French atelier systems of master teaching apprentice, Studio Incamminati strives to produce skilled artists whose art and teaching will inspire others.
To request an invitation or to learn about corporate or individual sponsorships for the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra’s 2011 annual gala, please call 215-545-0502.
About the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra: Founded in 1939, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra is one of the nation’s oldest classical music training and orchestra performance programs for gifted and talented students from the Tri-State region. Lead by Maestro Louis Scaglione, PYO’s companion ensembles include the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra (PYAO), formed in 1996; Bravo Brass, added to the program in 2003; Philadelphia Region Youth String Music (PRYSM) created in 2007; and the Musicopia String Orchestra partnership, which began in 2008. Young musicians from ages six through 21 are selected by competition audition and have represented the United States on five continents. The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) offers classical musical performances to the Greater Philadelphia region each year and supports musical education to children from Philadelphia’s more challenging neighborhoods through its newest after-school program launched in 2010, Tune Up Philly.
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