The 2012 spring semester at YOBC was a busy one with a great series of master classes for our string players, percus-sionists, and would-be jazz improvisers. Wind Symphony also opened its doors to about 20 guests for an April Fool’s Day open rehearsal where eve-ryone got to play some new and different music. The regular season culmi-nated in a concert featur-ing Jason DePue of the Philadelphia Orchestra as a guest soloist with the YOBC Symphony Orches-tra. But for 55 YOBC stu-dents and their families, the season has not ended. On May 20 the tour en-

YOBC Student Combines Her Love of Art & Music To Create Award-Winning Dress

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16 YOBC Graduates in Class of 2012

2

Conductor’s Notes: Why Should I Play Chamber Music?

2

Student Spotlight: Emily Horn

3

Finding Your Voice: An Opportunity for Impact

3

YOBC Benefits from Generous Donors

4

Important Dates: May 19–20: New and

Move-Up Auditions

May 20: YOBC Interna-tional Tour Rehearsal

July 20: Tour Bon Voy-age Concert, BCCC 8:30 PM

September 8: New Stu-dent & Advanced Divi-sion Orientation

September 9: Rehears-als begin for 2012–13

September 16: Parents’ Meetings

Inside this issue:

YOBC Caps off a Busy Year with Spring Concerts, Master Classes, and European Tour

Volume 3, Number 4 May 2012

semble will be rehearsing for a 10-day trip in July to Northern Spain and Southern France. The group is scheduled to per-form at several interna-tional youth music festi-vals in the South of France as well as enjoy-ing the historical and ar-chitectural sights — and beaches — of the south of France. The students will have an opportunity to take a master class and interact with other stu-dent musicians from around the world. They will serve as musical am-bassadors from Bucks County and YOBC. The YOBC tour en-semble will perform a Bon Voyage Concert on

Friday, July 20 at BCCC in the music building where we usually rehearse. There is a final re-hearsal from 7:00 to 8:30, followed by an informal concert in Room 001 of the Mu-sic & Multimedia Building. The concert is free; we hope eve-ryone will come out to see our friends off.

Keeping Tempo

Thomas Michael Silvester-Jensen

Visit the YOBC website Members/Announcements

for more pictures

Molly’s Baby

Mr. Loughran and the YOBC Symphony Orchestra rehearse with the Philadelphia Orches-

tra’s Jason DePue

Mr. D helps out a visiting percus-sionist at the Wind Symphony

“Bring A Friend” open rehearsal

YOBC Symphony and Wind Ensemble students take on the challenge of

improvisation

Each spring YOBC recognizes graduating seniors at the Advanced Division concert. This year, due to a clerical error, we left one of our sen-iors off the pro-gram. Edwin Lu, a violinist in YOBC’s Symphony Or-chestra, is a senior at Council Rock North High School. He has been a member of YOBC for three years and hopes to join a music ensemble in col-lege. His favorite memories include the 20th Anniversary Gala Concert and this year’s trip to the Philadel-phia Orchestra concert. Edwin likes YOBC because of the good players, repertoire, and program. He says YOBC “opened up my realm of mu-sic by teaching me the concept of musicality.” Edwin joins the other graduating students: Gregory Chen, Charlotte Fedun, Chandler Fitzsi-mons, Ramya Gurunathan, Jennifer Hammelman, George MacIntyre, Michael Manoff, Jasmine Pitts, Sam Present, Tom Shen, Ian Sibner, Chris Smirnov, Paula Williamson, Michael Yang, and Victoria Zhao. We wish each of them the best in their future endeavors.

Conductors’ Notes: Why Should I Play Chamber Music?

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“I play with YOBC. I play in my school groups. What would chamber music do for me except take up more of my limited time?” Students are busy and even more time play-ing can seem like overkill at best. But making music in a small group can be an opportunity for real musi-cal growth. I often warn student musicians not to hide in wind en-semble or in any large ensemble. If a passage is difficult it is easy to let it go because someone else is proba-bly playing the part. In chamber music, each part is exposed and must be mastered for the perform-

YOBC Student Combines Her Love of Art & Music To Create Award-Winning Dress For an art project at Pennsbury High School, Marisa Purdy has created a Victo-rian dress made en-tirely out of recycled musical instruments. It was made thanks in part to her YOBC friends who donated sheet music, a bow, and a bridge. The dress is made out of sheet music, partly dipped in coffee; strings from all types of instruments; and reeds from clari-net, bassoon, sax and oboe. The tie at the back was made from the bow hairs from the donated bow. The bridge became a necklace, and ear-rings were made from violin pegs. And the violin is the bodice. The bow was also used to make a parasol. Ma-risa has been collecting these parts from students, teachers, and music stores and her dress has won the following awards: Pennsylvania State Education

Association “Touch the Future” Art Expo – Best In Show (selected from over 800 pieces from 35 school districts in Mont-

gomery and Bucks). For this she was interviewed by Gillian Miele on the morning show, “The 10 Show.” Recycle Run-way Fashion Show, First Place Winner. This was sponsored by Waste Manage-ment and NIE (Newspapers in Education). Bucks County Art Show at BCCC

at Hicks Gallery, she won the Congressional Award, presented by Congressman Mike Fitz-patrick. The congressman asked her if he could display the dress in his office once she’s done with it.

Next Marisa is going to enter the dress and model it at the Pennsyl-vania State Recycling Fashion Show in Quakertown in May. One of the judges will be from the show “Project Runway.” See the link on YOBC’s home page for more pictures.

ers. The true attention needed to re-fine the details of performance skills are exposed in chamber music. Every musician should take time to do duets, trios, quartets, quintets, etc. to hone their skills and play great music. YOBC has instituted a cham-ber music recital as part of the cur-riculum and will give groups that have worked to prepare a piece a con-cert performance venue. If you love music and want to be a better musi-cian take the time and play some chamber music.

—Steve Sweetsir, Conductor YOBC Wind Ensemble

ance. Making music with a small group means each individual is re-sponsible for all aspects of music-

making. There is no conductor giv-ing the tempo, correcting rhythms, giving phrasing, interpreting the music for you. Each player has to listen to the others, react, tune, phrase, and articulate with the oth-

Making music in a small group can be an opportunity for real

musical growth.

16 YOBC Graduates in Class of 2012

Edwin Lu

Marisa Purdy plays cello in YOBC’s Philharmonia and has just auditioned successfully for Symphony Orchestra.

Marisa Purdy (center) with her award-winning dress created from

recycled musical instruments. She is with her art teacher Danyelle Lala

and Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick.

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Volume 3, Number 4

musical voice: “Why be a second-rate Ravel, when you are a first-rate Gershwin?” Gershwin learned to in-fuse classical music with the rhythms and harmonies of jazz and popular music, creating his own, unique sound which made him a great composer. He later said, “True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.” Gershwin found his voice and forever changed the world of music. In 2012, the 75th anniversary of his death, his music continues to speak with meaning. We are all on a journey to find our unique voice. YOBC was created 22 years ago to give young string stu-dents an advanced classical music ex-perience. Through the years we have worked to answer the question: What can we do to help young musicians? To date, we have expanded our programs to include wind and percussion stu-dents, added 11 ensembles, estab-lished a Concerto Competition, created an annual master class series and a chamber music program, developed a curriculum, taken students on five

I once heard a student address par-ents and students at her high school graduation. She was an inexperi-enced speaker, but her message was powerful because she spoke with pas-sion and clarity about things that were important to her. At such a young age, she had found her voice and her authenticity gave her words an opportunity for great impact. George Gershwin’s music is like that. He was born in Brooklyn in 1898, to an immigrant family. As a boy, George became interested in the “sounds” of music. He once said, “I frequently hear music in the heart of noise,” and this aptly describes the wild collage of music that influenced his compositions. He studied classi-cal piano, but at 15, he took a job plugging popular songs on “Tin Pan Alley,” where he learned to write and sell his own jazz-inspired songs for $5 apiece. He traveled to Europe to learn from great classical musicians including Ravel and Schoenberg. Recognizing Gershwin’s talent, Ravel refused to give him instruction, wisely advising him to find his own

Finding Your Voice: An Opportunity for Impact

international tours, provided oppor-tunities for leadership through com-munity service, arranged field trips to concerts in Philadelphia and NYC, and enriched students through op-portunities to work with artists like Chris Brubeck and Jason DePue. Each year, the YOBC board and staff strive to answer that same ques-tion with clarity of mission and pas-sion. We strive to provide a learning environment rich with opportunity and encouragement, which recognizes the unique potential of each student. This is our voice and it guides everything we do. We have planned many opportunities for YOBC stu-dents in 2012–13, culminating in a weekend of learning and performing with two-time Grammy Award–winning artist Mark O’Connor at Patriots Theater. We hope that by remaining true to our own voice, we will be able to help each of our stu-dents unlock their potential by mov-ing them further along their journey to finding their own, unique voice.

—Colleen Sweetsir YOBC Executive Director

This February, Emily Horn and her mother, Sabine, took part in a house-building excursion, together with Tabitha, a nonprofit organization, to the outskirts of Batambang, Cambo-dia. Still suffering from the effects of General Pot Pol, the country’s brutal dictator who directed the genocide of nearly 30% of the population in the 1970s, Cambodia’s citizens endure the aftershocks today in terms of severe poverty, lack of sanitary water, and scant opportunities for work to pro-vide for their families. The 22-hour plane ride from New York was exhausting, but it was worth it once Emily and Sabine wit-nessed the villagers smiling from ear to ear as they were able to move into their new home which the house-building crew had constructed. It might have been the first time these

people had had proper shelter from the sweltering sun during the dry season and the humidity and heavy rains dur-ing the Southeast Asian monsoons. Emily and her mother also had a chance to visit Tuol Sleng, a former school that had been converted into a prison for torture by the Khmer Rouge. They also took a tour of the infamous Killing Fields in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where a tall pagoda houses literally hundreds of skulls from the victims of the genocide. The Tabitha house-building group also vis-ited an orphanage run by local volun-teers and Tabitha’s headquarters, where Cambodian women are hired and receive a steady income for sewing beautiful silk scarves, purses, and other hand-crafted merchandise. Emily and Sabine help Tabitha back home in Pennsylvania by selling

tudent potlight: Emily Horn

these silk products at church sales and local fairs. For information re-garding the Tabitha house-building program, other Cambodian-based community projects, and artisan Cambodian silk goods, please con-tact Emily or Sabine (215-489-1109)at kendrickhorn@yahoo.com.

Emily Horn plays oboe in YOBC’s Wind Ensemble.

Emily Horn (kneeling, front left) with a Cambodian house-building crew.

YOBC Benefits from Generous Donors

252 Hollow Branch Lane Yardley, PA 19067

Email: info.yobc@gmail.com

auditions@yobc.org

yobc.org

Six years ago, YOBC’s founders asked me to assume responsibility for YOBC. Joe and Judy Gimbel believed that my experience in non-profit governance could take YOBC to a higher level as an educational institution and in its management and direction. With the assistance of our very capable Board of Direc-tors, our endlessly energetic volun-teers, and our professional conduc-tors and administrators, YOBC has: Doubled the number of stu-

dents that we serve, many with scholarships as needs require;

Expanded programs in chamber music;

Collaborated with BCCC’s College Choir, TCNJ’s Wind Ensemble, and a variety of profes-sional musi-cians and cli-nicians;

Provided op-portunity for our students to regularly perform in a true concert hall; and

Developed a curriculum-based, multi-level instrumental pro-gram geared toward optimum student development, with our Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble consistently perform-ing college-level material.

Our five-year plan (available on our website) has set ambitious tar-gets for future growth. YOBC has become a “best in class” organiza-tion that emphasizes a nurturing approach to learning, along with a willingness to explore how classical music finds its way into other musi-cal expressions, as demonstrated in our “Crossing Classical Bounda-ries” program. What we provide is truly unique in our region, and our student retention rate is a reflec-

(hydrologist), and accordingly we support the Franklin Institute as benefactors. Serious music instruc-tion and broader academic perform-ance in school are directly corre-lated in numerous studies. The in-stitutions that help develop young minds, like the Franklin Institute and YOBC, deserve serious consid-eration for your financial support – the bang for the buck is huge. Won’t you join Eileen and me and our Board in considering a gift to YOBC, perhaps even when you consider your estate planning? I can assure you that your gift will directly and meaningfully impact the lives of highly motivated youth in our community.

—Joseph P. Hochreiter, Jr. YOBC Board President

tion of the value that we provide our members. Running a 250-student educa-tional nonprofit requires a lot of support. Top on that list is the 21-year sponsorship of the Bucks County Community College’s Arts Department. They provide free use of all college facilities and equip-ment, without which our tuition would easily be doubled. Parent and community volunteers also lead the way in keeping our costs low. That said, YOBC has to pay for nearly everything else that it needs to op-erate, from performance venues, conductor and administrative staff

salaries, music scores, scholar-ships, and profes-sional musician fees. We’ve benchmarked our costs through our membership in the League of American Or-chestras and we know we are a great value when compared to our peers across the

country. My wife Eileen and I support a number of social-service agencies, including the Family Service Asso-ciation Bucks County Emergency Shelter (which I founded at the Red Cross in 1985) and the Counseling Center of Bucks County. One of my proudest moments was in 2010 when a 12-year-old girl entered the shelter with her homeless father and her trombone. Our Board im-mediately evaluated her musical interest and placed her in our Jump Start scholarship program (which paid for private music lessons for a year) When I was 12, I studied radio theory at the Franklin Institute and obtained my Amateur Radio license. That experience directly led me to a career as a scientist

Joe Hochreiter (left), YOBC Board Presi-dent, with YOBC’s founder Joe Gimbel.

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