Orchestral Performance

Since the inception of the Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra in 2012, our international network has created SEYO summer camps every two or three years, bringing young people together from different countries for a week of rehearsing and performing together. It’s an exciting tradition!—and its only downside is the restlessness of the participating members…during the “off” years, when camps don’t take place. 

The youth orchestra of the Brazilian program NEOJIBA has just returned from its 10th international tour, having visited Frankfurt, Germany, and four cities in China.

The 1,500-strong audience in eastern Canada’s Moncton, New Brunswick erupted with a roar of approval. 

They were applauding the Sistema New Brunswick (Sistema NB) Children’s Orchestra, 110 musicians ages 9-14. But the performance of Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave was only the warmup.

Soon, Dan Brown walked on stage. A world-famous author of bestselling novels such as The Da Vinci Code, Brown is also a composer. In 2020, he released a new work, Wild Symphony.

For the last eight years, I’ve coached violinists for the YOLA National Festival. Each summer, it is a remarkable thing to walk into the first sectional on the first day and witness an exceptional level of preparation from 18 violinists who, for the most part, don’t know each other and have never played together—a group of students that have made a commitment to each other before even meeting one another. This is what defines the YOLA National Festival: the dedication and integrity of all participants, a spirit that lives in the YNF students and also in the staff and the incredible faculty who return each summer. It is a special and profoundly devoted community, something I have not witnessed elsewhere.