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march it was. Two dramatic pieces followed: The colorful Atlantis, and the dark and mischievous Shadows Unleashed, featuring the flutes introducing the shadow theme. Both McGinty and Balmages know how to write for young band players, and Young Sousas had their audience completely compelled under Maestro Diez’s baton.

Young Sousas and Concert Band combined for The Gold Rush of 1849 conducted by Oliver Diez. Combining with the

older Concert Band is an inspiring achievement for Young Sousas. Sitting side by side with

Concert Band allows younger students the opportunity to see first-hand what

they can expect to become with hard work and practice as advancing young musicians, especially in the beautiful opening moments of the piece, and ending with such a rollicking good time.

Concert Band continued under the direction of Brent Mounger with the

prophetic choice and gently flowing As Summer Was Just Beginning. The beautiful and

The historic Miami Senior High School Auditorium was buzzing with excitement on May 7th as the Young Mozarts took the stage to begin the first of the two season finale concerts of the 2016-2017 Greater Miami Youth Symphony’s fifty-ninth season. Conductor Sandra Rubio opened the concert with the Japanese sounding Kabuki Dance, which showed off the Young Mozarts pizzicato skills to full advantage. Then an arrangement of Saint-Saen’s Havanaise by long-time Miami composer, conductor, arranger, and educator Robert Longfield, that had everyone dancing in their seats. For their final number, Maestra Rubio chose the cheerful strains of another dance, this time with Moorish influences in the Basse Dance La Moursique. A thank you to new GMYS board member Angelica Sganga for her collaborative piano accompaniment.

Next up was Maestro Oliver Diez and the Young Sousas starting out as every young concert band should, with a march, in this case, the Billboard March. And a very snappy rendition of this familiar circus

GMYS Celebrates Another Season with Spring Finale Concerts

Young Mozarts waiting to start the concert.

Volume 2, Issue 6, June 2017Greater Miami Youth Symphony

comforting hymn Amazing Grace followed leaving the audience touched with its powerful and emotional grandeur. Mr Mounger finished his program with a great change of pace in Tchaikovsky’s March Slave.

Mr Bringle Cidel and Concert Orchestra took the stage with two Dackow arrangements:

Mozart’s Serenade No 9 Posthorn Finale, and Mahler’s Symphony No 1 in D Major Mvt II. Mr Cidel has worked tirelessly to build these advancing young musicians character and musical determination and

it definitely showed. The contemporary Lullaby, composed by William Hofeldt,

captivated the audience with its beautiful and simple melody and allowed

Concertmaster Sophia Blanco to shine with her compelling violin solo. In a reprise of the Concerto Competition Winner’s Concert, Ella Kim played the Rondo from Seitz Concerto No 4 much to the delight of the audience, who responded with a standing ovation. A special thank you goes to GMYS Board member Daisy Su for her collaborative piano accompaniment.

Seniors participating in the 3PM concert were recognized with plaques noting their years of service by Walter Busse, outgoing President of the Board of Trustees, and Executive Director Matthew Sheary. A highlight of the ceremony was the presentation to Maria Suarez-Nieto, as the Robert Smiddy Scholarship Winner for this season.

Erich Rivero and the GMYS Jazz Band finished off the Concert beginning with Shakey Ground, then an arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed. Following was an array of jazz favorites including, My One and Only Love, It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing, featuring vocal guest artist Isabella Rodriguez, and In The Mood. Rounding out the program, was an arrangement of Silver’s Sister Sadie Music that nearly blew the top off Miami Senior High and had the audience almost dancing in the aisles. A note of thanks goes to Dr Ed Calle, guest saxophone soloist for making this concert afternoon so special.

After a short break, the second Season Finale Concert began with an across the causeway visit of the Beach Mozarts, under the direction of Alain Orbitz. In the guise of swashbuckling buccaneers, the Beach Mozarts played to the crowd with Badelt’s Pirates of the Caribbean.

Then String Orchestra took the stage starting with the uplifting and inspiring Luminescence. Under the capable baton of Maestra Mirlynez Iglesias-Mendez, String Orchestra made the dancing melody shimmer and flow over the rhythmic accompaniment. Next up, The Finale to the William Tell Overture is such a beloved piece of repertoire. And String Orchestra did not disappoint. The audience had the Lone

Ranger and Tonto firmly in mind’s eye. Maestra Mirlynez-Iglesias chose the contemporary Night Ride to follow. With its driving bass line, and every section showing off the melody, it was a winning choice. For their final selection, Symphony No 15, written when Mozart was only sixteen, and arranged by Dackow, was a wonderful finish to an impressive program for String Orchestra. Brava to Maestra Mirlynez-Iglesias for her wonderful efforts in developing these young students into such fine young musicians.

The Symphony String Chamber Ensemble is a subset of Symphony, and preceded them on this concert beginning with the Serenade for Strings by Sir Edward Elgar. The rhythmic figure of the first movement begins with the violas and continues liltingly throughout. The achingly gorgeous second movement Larghetto with its constantly unfolding melody in the hands of Maestra Chen was serene beauty. The first movement themes return in the third movement with pleasing cordiality by Elgar; Symphony String Chamber played their very best of the season. Maestra Chen chose a contemporary Csárdás by McClean to finish the program. The slow deliberate beginnings of the gypsy dance culminated in the fast upbeat tempo that Symphony String Chamber clearly relished delivering and had the audience cheering.Then Symphony took the stage for the final time this season, under the baton of Huifang Chen. Ouverture Agreste by McAlister and Serebrier’s Laments and Hallelujahs were World Premieres of the St Martha’s Concert and conducted by their composers only a week

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Seniors and Smiddy Scholarship winners.

Strings Orchestra

Beach Mozarts

ConductorSpotlight

Oliver Diez Young Souzas Conductor

Oliver Diez was born and raised in Hialeah, FL and is a product of Miami-Dade county public schools. He began his music training in the 7th grade with the saxophone. He received his bachelors and Masters in Music Education at Florida International University in 1999 and 2016. He currently is in his 18th year of teaching at Palmetto Elementary where he teaches general music classes during the school day along with directing a chorus, beginning band, concert band, and jazz combo before and after school. In 1999 he was chosen as his school’s Rookie teacher of the year and in 2002, Teacher of the year. He has been nominated three times as Grammy’s Music Educator of the year. Since 2002 his music groups have traveled to the Music USA festival where they have received many Superior ratings and have also received Grand Champions award. Many of his students and former students have been chosen to perform at the FMEA All state groups in Tampa and Superintendent’s Honors Festival in Miami.

Mr. Diez, along with other directors, began the band preparatory program at GMYS eight years ago and began the Young Sousas four years ago. He has enjoyed tremendously working with all students in various levels from GMYS during the summers and the school year and looks forward to the talent this wonderful organization will produce in the future.

before, now Symphony’s reprise of the repertoire under Ms. Chen’s baton was fresh and compelling. Symphony played with confidence through the rhythmic patterns of the Overture, and imbued the movie-like score of Laments and Hallelujah with spirit and grandeur, thanks to Maestra Chen’s attentiveness and command.

Seniors participating in the 6PM concert were recognized with plaques noting their years of service by Walter Busse, outgoing President of the Board of Trustees, and Executive Director Matthew Sheary. Twenty-five seniors in both concerts were recognized for

their participation in GMYS. Jyasi Myrthil and Patrick Barham both graduated with an incredible thirteen years of participation. All GMYS Seniors traditionally go on to college, and this year was no exception. College acceptances included Harvard, Yale, Duke, Bowdoin, Stanford, Williams, Cornell, and an impressive array of others. GMYS wishes all our graduating seniors the very best as they embrace the challenges of this new chapter in their lives. But we all know they are so capable and well prepared.

Maestra Chen chose to finish the program with Sibelius’ most famous work, Finlandia. The exuberance of Symphony’s youthful joie de vivre translated directly into the rousing and turbulent music making for a most riveting and irresistible performance. The tranquil melody of the Finlandia Hymn near the end was in beautiful contrast. Finlandia was the perfect period to a wonderful day of marvelous music making. The audience was on its feet for a standing ovation in complete admiration for the performances. Symphony presented Ms. Chen with a glorious bouquet of roses as a small token of their esteem and appreciation. Maestra Chen in turn shared a rose with her Principal players.

Symphony Orchestra seniors

Beach Mozarts

Symphony Orchestra

Preparatory Program End of Season Performances After a busy, exciting and productive season of our Preparatory Program all of our classes put on beautiful performances to parents, family and community members. It was wonderful to see how our students have grown over the course of one year! All the classes beautifully demonstrated their newly learned scales, arpeggios, etudes and even a few pop hits!

The first performance took place at Westwind Lakes Park on May 3rd. Lead by Mr. Alain Orbiz and Ms. Xiomara Sepulveda, featuring four violin classes.

The second performance took place the following day down at our Homestead location in Airbase K-8 Center. Our instructors Mr. Alain Orbiz and Mr. Tony Seepersad presented their violin and cello classes to perform.

Symphony Violist Wows Crowd at Side-By-Side Concerto Competition The New World Symphony Side-By-Side Concerto Competition is a coveted opportunity for advancing orchestral players in grade 7-12 to audition and perform top repertoire in a concert event sitting beside a New World fellow, on the New World Center Concert stage, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, Co-founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony.

As part of the audition process, finalists are named to compete for the opportunity to perform their concerto as a soloist with the ensemble. This year’s concerto competition winner and Side-By-Side soloist was GMYS Principal Violist Laura Liu. She is the first violist in ten years to win the honor. On April 22, Laura performed the first movement of the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra by Sir William Walton. Joining Laura in the Side-By-Side Orchestra, were fellow GMYS Symphony members Sahana Shravan, Grace Seivert, Principal Cello, Sophia Molina, Pablo Ocampo, Daniel Hernandez, and Harrison Lam. Laura was also seated as Principal Viola. Zaria Graves and Geo Barrios were named as alternates. GMYS Music Director and Symphony Conductor Ms Huifang Chen attended, and called the concert “a glorious evening” and an “amazing performance of the Walton for Laura.” Other repertoire in the Side-By-Side Concert included Rossini’s lively Overture to Semiramide, a lush performance of Nocturnes: Clouds and Festivals by Claude Debussy, and Tchaikovsky’s Suite from Swan Lake, which included all the beloved dances from the Spanish Dance through the Mazurka.

Laura and Michael Tilson Thomas

Vicki Robinson and her son Tarig

GMYS wishes to acknowledge Dr. Walter Busse for his many contributions to the organization. He became a GMYS parent in 2008 when his daughter Sarah became a member of the Strings Orchestra. In 2011 he was elected to the office of Vice President and in 2016-17

served as President. Dr. Busse has been involved in many projects including the 55th Anniversary Alumni celebration and concert that took place November 2013 at Miami-Dade County Auditorium, the Symphony trip to Ireland in 2014, and most recently laying the groundwork for the Cuba trip in 2018 which will serve as an exchange collaboration

between GMYS and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory. In addition he has been an accompanist for our ensembles and preparatory classes. We thank Dr. Busse for the countless hours he has devoted to improving the lives of our students through instruction, participation in our many ensembles, and constantly seeking new opportunities for their growth and development!

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Grant Awarded to GMYSLast December, GMYS applied and was awarded an exciting new grant through the generosity of the Ocean Reef Community Foundation @ the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. This grant will create two new classes in Florida City. One class will be at ACE Academy, which is part of The Arc of South Florida, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to ensure the rights of all children with disabilities. The grant will enable us to provide weekly piano classes to 10 children with special needs. The second new Florida City location will be at Florida City Elementary; a Title I school. We will have another 10 preparatory level students on strings at this location. GMYS is excited to keep changing lives since 1958 and are thrilled for this new opportunity to provide musical opportunities to even more children in our community.

Our third performance took place at the Pinecrest Community Center. This is our largest preparatory class location with 6 classes taking place weekly! These classes are led by Mrs. Jacolyn Alvarez and Ms. Sarah Wallace, assisted by Alexander Liu.

The fourth performance took place on May 16th at Glades Middle School and

had a double feature of our Cello & Bass class led by Ms. Stephanie

Jamies as well as our Beginning Band ensemble led by Mr. Erich Rivero. The Beginning Band

ensemble featured students on clarinet, trumpet, trombone and multiple percussion instruments. They performed the full ensemble selections of Can-Can, the Sound of Music’s Do-Re-Mi and Somebody I Used to Know. The final performance was on May 21st at the Northshore Park and Youth Center in North Miami Beach. Both instructors at this location are teachers at multiple locations, Mr. Alain Orbiz and Ms. Sarah Wallace. This performance featured three preparatory classes and the Beach Mozart Ensemble.

We are very proud to see the level of growth that all our students have shown in our preparatory classes this year. We hope to see new students this coming year and see our students from this year audition up into Young Mozarts or Young Sousas. Congratualations to all our preparatory classes and teachers on another successful season!

Leslie Carpenter; Mathew Sheary and Daniela Santana receive Ocean Reef grant.

GMYS Performs at St. Martha’s Concert Series

International Jazz Day 2017

Pablo Ocampo My name is Pablo Ocampo and I am co-principal double bass player with the Greater Miami Youth Symphony. I’ve played the bass for about eight years and have been a part of Symphony Orchestra ever since I was a freshman, as well as String Orchestra from 6th to 7th grade.I am happy to say that I will be attending Stanford University this fall, where I will be pursuing a double major in Management Science & Engineering, and Mathematical & Computational Sciences, as well as a certificate in performance on double bass.Eight years ago, when I moved from Mexico I was hopelessly cut off by a language barrier; that is, until I learned Music. You don’t need to know what “diorama” means to make music with your friends. All you need to know is how to count to two/three/four and have a pair of functioning hands. In school and in conventions and, of course, in GMYS I made friends. I made family. And most importantly, I discovered something that I love adamantly.A sensible question would now be “Then, Pablo, why are you studying math, or whatever that is?” The answer is: Not only will I be pursuing one of the highest levels of instrumental performance accreditation given by Stanford, but music will always be a part of my daily life. My goal in life, is to give back to music-- repay what it did for me. And given that I have a “knack” for numbers, I figured I would try to pursue what I know I am best at and where I am most likely to succeed. In other words, I want to put myself in a position where I can make the absolute biggest impact in helping the arts and particularly music.I know it sounds farfetched. But I refuse to not give it a go just because of that. After all, they said I would have trouble adjusting to English. They said I would probably not make it into Honors Algebra. Then, they said I could never get into Stanford. Now, they say that the arts are dying. I say: Let them watch, I haven’t been stopped so far.

On Saturday, April 30, the GMYS Symphony Orchestra presented a special concert, in partnership with St. Martha’s Concert Series and Barry University. Besides our 80 musically-gifted students, this performance featured three world premieres including a composition by the Grammy-winning conductor and

composer Jose Serebrier, and a work for violin and orchestra featuring GMYS Music Director, Huifang Chen. The students had the unique opportunity to work with the three composers as they conducted their respective pieces. Kudos to Ms. Chen for her excellent preparation during the many hours of rehearsal leading up to this concert.The opening selection was Ouverture Agreste by Dr. Clark McAlister whose diverse career includes conductor of several South Florida orchestras and Vice President/Editor-in-Chief of Kalmus Music and Ludwig Masters Publications. Next, the orchestra presented Takuminartut, a work commissioned by Maestro Serebrier, composed by Marc Satterwhite and featuring an outstanding performance by Ms. Chen. Inspired by the Inuit (Eskimo) culture, this composition references two frequent subjects of Inuit art and was a showcase for Ms. Chen’s riveting sound and precise articulation. Maestro Serebrier then took the podium to conduct his Biblically-inspired work, Laments and Hallelujahs, followed by his arrangement of Carmen, a multi-movement homage to the great opera by Georges Bizet. It was a rousing performance and a great concert closer.Congratulations to all who participated – the students, guest artists, host and GMYS staff – and a special thanks to the GMYS parents for their support and dedication!

Student Showcase

On April 30th, The Global Arts Project, Inc. and the Collins Park Neighborhood Association celebrated the 2017 International Jazz Day with a Free concert performance to the surrounding community. Our students were invited to perform with Latin Grammy Award Winning Saxophonist, Dr. Ed Calle as one of the opening groups. It was a cool breezy day which made for an inviting scene drawing hundreds of people from around the beach to come and enjoy the swinging music. The Jazz Band played a full hour set featuring many of our own students as well as Dr. Calle. To encompass the international aspect of jazz, the selections performed by GMYS spanned from multiple countries and time periods creating a very diverse and exciting program. The students’ performance received a wave of applause from everyone on the beach. We are very happy to see our students out in the community sharing their passion for music! We also thank Dr. Ed Calle for his continued support in providing our band this opportunity.

5275 Sunset Dr, Miami, FL 33143Phone: 305.667.4069

www.gmys.org

Board of Directors

Leslie Carpenter, PresidentDr. Mark Schuppener, Vice President

Victo-Rene Robinson, TreasurerAngelica Sganga, Secretary

Brunella BarnettLakeisha FrithDaisy SuDr. Leo WalzBernarda ReyesMarcia Littley

Jordana SchneiderBogdan ChruszczDr. Velia YedraHelen Ann HauserPaul StrassburgTerry Bonelli

Student Showcase

Audition Music AvailableMusic and audition guidelines available at

https://gmys.org/auditions/

2017 - 2018 SeasonNow OPEN for Registration

For registration informationEmail: info@gmys.org or visit www.gmys.org

GMYS CONCERTO COMPETITION

SAVE THE DATE

OCTOBER 13, 3:00PM to 8:00PM @ Steinway Gallery

OCTOBER 14, 10:00AM to 6:00PM @ Steinway Gallery

More information coming soon.

Stay up to date on upcoming GMYS concerts and performances! Download a copy of our recently updated events calendar here.