NEW YORK — Carnegie Hall pulled off a real coup when the august institution decided to invite a few international orchestras to join in its now-annual National Youth Orchestra (NYO) summer residency and concert series. The result was World Orchestra Week (WOW!) from Aug. 1-7, which turned out to be so much more than the sum of its parts. Some of the summer’s most exhilarating music-making emanated from these 700 young musicians from five continents and 35 countries forming seven orchestras, each supplemented by guest musicians — a real meeting of young minds and souls, crackling with energy and joy. I attended the first three concerts and listened to the rest online.
It all started in 2013, when Carnegie Hall executive director Clive Gillinson launched the NYO for young musicians from around the United States. Soon he added NYO2, for younger teens, and NYO Jazz. The program was interrupted by the pandemic, but after two years of online and then hybrid programming, regular residencies, Carnegie concerts, and touring resumed.
2024 represented a major scaling up, as the annual showcase for young American musicians turned into an international festival of youth orchestras. The rehearsal residency at Purchase College north of New York City expanded, with some musicians coming together for the first time, either in newly formed ensembles or as guests integrating into other orchestras.
The seven concerts at Carnegie shared the same general format. The hall went summer casual, with the usual red-jacketed ushers in WOW! T-shirts and WOW! bandanas. The orchestra members entered from the rear of the auditorium, parading past cheering audience members and onto the stage. Before the conductor arrived, one or more orchestra members introduced themselves and the orchestra, and name-checked members of some of the other orchestras who were seated throughout the theater, each in their own orchestra’s T-shirt (it began to feel like team cheering sections at the Olympics).
Almost every orchestra welcomed guest musicians from another ensemble. Each group programmed music from their own culture as well as standard Western classical orchestra music. The energy in the hall grew more enthusiastic throughout the week. Hardly surprising, as the young people, many now staying in dorms in Greenwich Village, shared more city adventures over the week.
The festival opened on Aug. 1 with NYO2, the National Youth Orchestra’s junior-varsity wing (aged 14-17), established in 2016. Teddy Abrams, the youthful and dynamic music director of the Louisville Orchestra, led them in a meaty program of American and Russian music. Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story offered the chance to show their chops and channel their (possibly nervous) energy. A world-premiere co-commission by Jasmine Barnes, Kinsfolknem, was in essence a concerto grosso for wind quartet: Demarre McGill, flute; Titus Underwood, oboe; Anthony McGill, clarinet; and Andrew Brady, bassoon. The three movements pay homage to Black family gatherings, with the splendid soloists playing both in smooth harmony and virtuosic, characterful solos. Barnes’ musical language is basically tonal, with pleasantly astringent and adventuresome seasoning. Her ease with melody makes one look forward to her new opera set to premiere in Chicago in 2025.
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture was a good emotional fit for the young players. Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite was perhaps a bit under-rehearsed but served to highlight talented soloists throughout the orchestra.
The National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, was the youngest (10-17) and the largest of the ensembles, with a roster of 162 players. A fifth-generation El Sistema ensemble, this was most clearly a pedagogical formation, as the larger-than-normal wind and brass ensembles exceeded standard orchestral proportions and were clearly meant to offer a chance to play to the greatest number. After NYO2’s professionalism, the Venezuelan ensemble which performed on Aug. 2 looked more like a school-age orchestra. But apart from an occasional sense of section bloat, the sound was cohesive and the playing was impressively clean, thanks to their skill, discipline, and devoted attention to Dudamel.
The printed program showcased their talent and energy, beginning with a fierce reading of John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Mediodía en el llano by Antonio Estévez had a flavor of Latin impressionism. Four dances from Ginastera’s Estancia were rhythmically incisive and powerful. After intermission, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 was well played but seemed a bit out of place in its heavy solemnity.
Yet possibly the best of the Venezuelans were their encores. In the middle of the first half, Dudamel inserted two choral numbers by El Sistema founder Jose Antonio Abreu, sung by the entire orchestra. It was sweet, sincere, and gloriously sung. Even better was the first encore at the end of the program, Aldemaro Romero’s Fuga con pajarillo, variations on a ground bass. It was performed by the Alma Llanera Ensemble, a quartet of folk instruments, with orchestral backing but mostly unaccompanied. The folk harp, cuatro (small guitar), maracas, and bass soloists were absolutely mesmerizing and brought the house to a frenzy. How do you top that? With their trademark “Mambo” from West Side Story.
The next evening, I was particularly eager to hear the Africa United Youth Orchestra because of conductor William Eddins’ decision to feature vocal soloists on the program. South Africa has in recent years produced a number of wonderful singers now making important European careers in opera and concert. A few of them are sopranos Golda Schultz, Pretty Yende, her sister Nombulelo Yende, and Pumeza Matshikiza; mezzo-soprano Siphokazi Molteno; tenors Levy Sekgapane and Siyabonga Maqungo; and bass-baritone Musa Ngqungwana. Add to those names the excellent sopranos Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and Goitsemang Lehobye, who performed with the orchestra.
Eddins opened the program with a pleasantly consonant tone poem based on songs from the South African nation Lesotho, composed by Michael Mosoeu Moerane. Two vocal selections by the South African composer and language professor Mzilikazi Khumalo related stories from Zulu history. A third song, in Afrikaans, is a more contemporary lament about a child suffering under the privations of apartheid. All were in a free-composed arioso style, with a vocal line that respected the language contours accompanied by expressive orchestral writing. In contrast was the buoyant encore sung as an improvised-sounding duet, punctuated with exuberant high-pitched ululation.
Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) was an ambitious choice for the small ensemble (65 players), even with a dozen NYO-USA musicians swelling the orchestra’s ranks. But there was a logic to programming a work based on American tunes, particularly spirituals, many of which have African origins. Another upbeat encore, a traditional South African medley that gradually transformed into “The lion sleeps tonight,” made me wish for more folkloric African music.
All the concerts were streamed live, which allowed me to hear the remaining programs even after contracting Covid. It wasn’t quite like being there, but I could hear both the music and the growing enthusiasm as the young visitors settled into their New York week and cemented new friendships.
On Sunday afternoon, the festival hosted the Beijing Youth Orchestra, 127 members strong, and formed only recently for this festival. Under their artistic director, Lü Jia, they performed three selections from Bao Yuankai’s Chinese Sights and Sounds, Zhao Jiping’s 2013 Pipa Concerto No. 2, with soloist Wu Man, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. As heard online, the playing was lush and precise.
Monday’s program by NYO-USA, the initiative’s flagship orchestra, under the direction of Marin Alsop, started with Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1 from the composer’s heart-on-sleeve youth. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in a performance that displayed more effortless style than the NYO-All Stars’ version heard a few months earlier. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade showcased NYO-USA’s fine roster of soloists, though I missed the experience of hearing them in person.
The week’s hottest ticket was to the European Union Youth Orchestra, founded 48 years ago by Claudio Abbado, here led by Iván Fischer. The program began with Anna Clyne‘s sparkling Masquerade, and continued with Ernő Dohnányi’s stylistically eclectic Variations on a Nursery Tune, featuring pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason flying through the virtuosic changes on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Youth orchestras don’t usually risk programming Mahler, but his Symphony No. 1 was very fine, with exquisite soft playing.
The final group to play had the most touching story: the Afghan Youth Orchestra, the main performing group of the Afghan National Institute of Music, founded in 2010 to provide training in both traditional and western music, especially to women and disadvantaged students. The group toured the U.S. in 2013 and continued to thrive until the Taliban returned to power and music was outlawed throughout the country. The school and its students were able to find refuge in Portugal, where they have resumed their studies while rebuilding their lives. Under conductor Tiago Moreira da Silva, they performed traditional Kawali and Sufi music, as well as orchestral arrangements of Afghani music and other western selections, augmented by members of the European Union Youth Orchestra.
Especially with respect to the Afghani musicians but for the other ensembles as well, I realized that there was at least one political story behind each appearance. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the opening-night audience to point out how the NYO orchestras and Carnegie Hall were funded. While Dudamel was receiving the Glenn Gould Prize for “enrich[ing] the human condition through the arts,” out in the street demonstrators were protesting the recent election of Maduro. The text of the Afrikaans song performed by the African orchestra was a setting of a poem read by Mandela before South Africa’s first democratically elected parliament.
Joining NYO-USA were eight young musicians from Tel Aviv — four Jewish, four Arab. Ukrainian musicians guested with the European Union Youth Orchestra, as Ukraine remains outside the EU. The arts are no refuge from outside reality. Small wonder that all the young announcers included a plea for peace in their introductions. Let’s hope that these young musicians can be ambassadors to carry the message outside the concert hall. Kudos to Carnegie, and best of luck for making this festival happen again.
All seven concerts are archived here.
