The New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), founded in 1963, is a music organization for the youth in New York City, widely reputed to be one of the best of its kind in the nation and world. Its programs include its flagship Orchestra, Chamber Music, Jazz, Apprentice Conducting, Composition, and Musical Theater Songwriting Programs. Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age. NYYS members are said to include the most talented young musicians in the New York metropolitan area. In 2023, the New York Youth Symphony won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
The NYYS is also a leader in classical music with its innovative commissioning program called First Music, established in 1984, in which young composers under the age of 30 are selected to write works for the programs. Commissions have included composers such as David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas, Julia Wolfe, and Aaron Jay Kernis.
Orchestra
The Orchestra Program, the flagship program of the NYYS, has had a tradition of seeking the best young orchestral talent in the New York area from ages 12 to 22. The New York Times wrote: "its players ... are sufficiently devoted to the music that when they perform at Carnegie Hall ... they produce a sound that would do an adult orchestra proud, in programs built largely of cornerstones of the standard canon."
The orchestra performs three concerts per year, each of which is performed at Carnegie Hall. The New York Times reported: "Its Carnegie Hall concerts are always ambitious and usually excellent". Each program usually includes, at least, a cornerstone of the orchestral repertoire and a premiere of a commissioned work. Usually a soloist or soloists perform, either an established artist, or a young artist as presented by the Roy and Shirley Durst Debut Series which was founded in 1997. The first Durst artist was Alisa Weilerstein.
The orchestra has not appointed established educators to fill its role as music director. Rather, it has had music directors who at the time were young; many of those conductors have become renowned. The music directors of the Orchestra have been:
David Epstein (1963–66) Leonard Slatkin (1966–68) Richard Holmes (1968–69) Isaiah Jackson (1969–73) David Stahl (1973–74) Kenneth Jean (1974–76) Myung-Whun Chung (1976–77) Robert Hart Baker (1977–81) Salvatore Scecchitano (1981–82) David Alan Miller (1982–88) Samuel Wong (1988–93) Miguel Harth Bedoya (1993–97) Mischa Santora (1997–2002) Paul Haas (2002–07) Ryan McAdams (2007–12) Joshua Gersen (2012–2017) Michael Repper (2017–2023)
Andrew Jihong Kim is the current music director with assistant conductor Adrian Rogers.
Chamber music
The Chamber Music Program (CMP) provides musicians aged 12 to 22 opportunity to participate in chamber ensembles of a variety of instrumentations. The current director is Dr. Lisa Tipton, of the Meridian Quartet.
The program uses established musicians teach master classes for the students. Past coaches have included:
Claude Frank, concert pianist
Kazuhide Isomura, viola, The Tokyo Quartet
Kathe Jarka, Alexander teacher
Gilbert Kalish, concert pianist
Ani Kavafian, violin/viola, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alan Kay, clarinet, Orpheus Program Coordinator
Joel Krosnick, cello, Juilliard String Quartet
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Frank Morelli, bassoon, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Charles Neidich, clarinet, faculty of the Juilliard School
Daniel Phillips, violin, The Orion Quartet
Shanghai Quartet members
Fred Sherry, cello, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Carol Wincenc, flute, The New York Woodwind Quintet
Carmit Zori, violin
Jazz Band
The New York Youth Symphony Jazz Band is a 17-member big band dedicated to studying, rehearsing, and performing jazz music. Modeled on the bands of the 1930s and 1940s, Jazz Band preserves this heritage and, keeping with jazz traditions, incorporates it into the current and emerging styles that define the genre for the present generation. The Jazz Band performs at renowned venues all over New York City including Birdland and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The Jazz Band has featured soloists and clinicians such as Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider, Conrad Herwig, Steve Turre, Warren Vaché, Victor Goines, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Joe Locke, Eric Reed, Lew Soloff, Gary Smulyan, and Frank Wess, giving students a chance to play alongside today's most exciting professional musicians.