The Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) is the oldest youth orchestra in the United States, established in 1924 as the Portland Junior Symphony (PJS). Now based in Portland, Oregon, the orchestra's origin dates back to 1910, when music teacher Mary V. Dodge began playing music for local children in Burns, Oregon. Dodge purchased instruments for the children and organized the orchestra, which would become known as the Sagebrush Symphony Orchestra. After touring the state, including a performance at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, the orchestra disbanded in 1918 when Dodge moved to Portland. There, Dodge opened a violin school and became music director of the Irvington School Orchestra.
Hoping to create a permanent youth symphony, Dodge approached Jacques Gershkovitch in 1923 to serve as music director of the Portland Junior Symphony. The ensemble performed for the first time in 1925, and by the 1930s, PJS concerts were being broadcast nationally. Following Gershkovitch's death in 1953, alumnus Jacob Avshalomov became the orchestra's music director. The ensemble's name was changed to the Portland Youth Philharmonic in 1978.
The PYP has had five conductors and music directors during its history: Gershkovitch (1924–1953), Avshalomov (1954–1995), Huw Edwards (1995–2002), Mei-Ann Chen (2002–2007), and professional clarinetist David Hattner (2008–present). The PYP's umbrella organization, the Portland Youth Philharmonic Association, consists of four ensembles, including the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Conservatory Orchestra, the Wind Ensemble, and the Young String Ensemble. Participating musicians range in age from seven to twenty-two years and attend dozens of schools within the Portland metropolitan area and surrounding communities.
History
Mary V. Dodge and the Sagebrush Symphony Orchestra
Mary V. Dodge (birth name Mary B. Thompson) was born in Arkansas in 1876. When she was five years old, her father died, causing her and her sisters to be placed in an orphanage while their mother finished nursing school. Mary Thompson became interested in music while attending a Catholic boarding school, and later became a musician and teacher in Boston and New York City. After moving to Portland, Oregon, where her aunt owned a boarding house, she met and married civil engineer and double bass player Mott Dodge. Soon after they married, Mott was transferred to Harney County for a work project.
In 1910, they settled in Burns in an engineering camp known as the "Boston tents". Mary and Mott had one child, Glen, who learned from his mother how to play the fiddle starting at a young age. A classically trained violinist with a "love of children and ... a deeply democratic view about making music", Dodge began teaching local children how to play string instruments, first in resident tents then in a photography studio. With assistance from parents and a professional flautist from Italy, who taught the children how to play wind instruments and conducted, Dodge assembled a small orchestra. According to former violin student Ruth Saunders, "All of the sighing, tooting and drumming soon made the citizens aware that something was going on, and due to her powers of persuasion, they found themselves devoting their time, talents, money and children to the creation of the Sagebrush Orchestra."
The orchestra's first concert was held in 1912 at Tonawama Hall in Burns. With funds provided by rancher Bill Hanley, lawyer and artist Charles Erskine Scott Wood, and additional Burns businessmen, Dodge purchased musical instruments for the children and expanded the orchestra to between thirty and thirty-five members. By 1915, the orchestra was touring throughout eastern Oregon on a Chautauqua circuit. With $2,000 in funds raised by the aforementioned businessmen, the ensemble visited western Oregon in September 1916 and performed seven concerts in a two-day period. By that point known as the Sagebrush Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble won $100 at the Oregon State Fair in Salem and performed several concerts in Portland, including one at the Imperial Hotel and one for opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink at the Portland Hotel. During the symphony's week-long tour, one Oregonian reporter wrote: "The journey of the little people is considered one of the finest exhibitions of community spirit ever shown in this state." Schumann-Heink planned to support the orchestra's efforts to tour, and promised to host a benefit concert the following year. However, the nation's involvement in World War I interrupted plans for additional tours. The orchestra disbanded in 1918 when Dodge relocated to Portland.