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Contact: Katie English, 267-974-1250
PYO Announces New Director, Asst. Director and Site Partner for Tune Up Philly in Second Year
After-school classical music education program will be lead by Delia Raab-Snyder and Paul Smith at People for People Charter School beginning October 3, 2011.
Philadelphia, PA – October 3, 2011 (Download PDF). Maestro Louis Scaglione, President and Music Director of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization (PYO), today announced Delia Raab-Snyder as the Director and Paul Smith as the Assistant Director and Site Coordinator for the PYO organization’s Tune Up Philly, in its second year. Tune Up Philly is an after-school musical education program at the People for People, Inc. Charter School at Broad St. and Fairmount Ave. in Philadelphia, designed to nurture urban children living in challenging social and economic conditions through weekday, out-of-school hours, classical musical instruction.
"The Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization is delighted to hold the second year of the Tune Up Philly program at the People for People, Inc. Charter School. We are excited about this new partnership which will benefit many elementary and middle-school students," said Maestro Louis Scaglione of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization. "Ms. Raab-Snyder has seamlessly transitioned into the role of Director of Tune Up Philly, after serving as general music teacher and clarinet teaching artist during the first year of the program. Mr. Smith is an enthusiastic and experienced addition to the team."
Tune Up Philly commenced in September 2010; its second year will begin October 3, 2011. Instructed by a dozen local, professional musicians, students in Tune Up Philly train five days a week during the school year, with concentrations in woodwind, brass, strings, percussion, choral and general music education. The program holds concerts, throughout the year, which are free and open to the public.
Delia Raab-Snyder is an alumna of the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra of the PYO organization, Settlement Music School and the School District of Philadelphia. She holds a Bachelors degree in Music in clarinet performance from The Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Mark Nuccio, and a Masters in Music from The University of Southern California where she was a student of Yehuda Gilad. She has attended the Aspen Music Festival and The Bowdoin International Music Festival, and studied the Orff Method at Villanova University. Ms. Raab-Snyder has worked extensively with children in New York, Philadelphia, The Los Angeles Unified School District, and El Centro de Esperanza Infantil in Oaxaca, Mexico. She resides in Philadelphia.
Paul Smith is an active composer, performer and educator. As a performer, Mr. Smith has premiered dozens of works to include the premiere of Robert Cuckson's "Concerto for Guitar" with the Mannes Orchestra under David Hayes and the premiere recording on the Vienna Modern Masters label of David Loeb's "Asian Fantasias" for solo guitar. He received his Bachelors of Music from the Mannes College of Music studying under Frederic Hand where he was awarded the Associated Music Teacher's award. Mr. Smith received a Masters Degree from The Juilliard School where he studied under Sharon Isbin and was a recipient of the McCabe Fellowship award, specializing in creating performance based educational outreach programs. He has performed with The New Juilliard Ensemble, ICE, and has received intensive baroque performance coaching from Lionel Party. Mr. Smith's compositions have been featured in venues ranging from Alice Tully Hall, to Seoul, Korea, and receives regular commissions for new works. His voice and guitar ensemble, The Spoon River Duo, specializes in works for the classical guitar and voice medium and has also premiered numerous commissions. Mr. Smith has developed after school enrichment programs at The School at Columbia University and instrumental instruction at Settlement Music Schools in Philadelphia.
About the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra: Founded in 1939, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization is one of the nation’s oldest community music education and youth orchestra performance programs for gifted and talented students from the Tri-State region. Lead by Maestro Louis Scaglione, the organization’s flagship ensemble, Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO), provides the most talented students with advanced orchestral training and performance opportunities throughout the concert season. 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 organization offers classical musical performances to the Greater Philadelphia region each year and supports musical education to children from Philadelphia’s more vulnerable neighborhoods through its newest after-school program launched in 2010, Tune Up Philly.
About People for People, Inc.: People for People, Incorporated (PFP) is a not-for-profit 501 (C) (3) organization, created by the Reverend Herbert H. Lusk, II in 1989 and incorporated in 1991 for the purpose of community economic development and the promotion of education and entrepreneurship in North Central Philadelphia. PFP’s mission is to break the generational cycle of poverty in the lives of local residents by providing them with the necessary tools they need to abandon gangs, drugs, welfare dependency and crime and to create new, stable self-sustaining lives for themselves and their families. www.peopleforpeople.org