Symphonies, Suites and Götterdämmerung: A Weekend at Tanglewood
Beethoven and Carmina Burana with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga

The Youth of the World Come to Carnegie Hall for World Orchestra Week

NYO-USA at World Orchestra Week, Carnegie Hall, 8/5/24NYO-USA at World Orchestra Week, Carnegie Hall, 8/5/24

For most of its history, Carnegie Hall was dark for the summer: a concession to the days before air conditioning when most New Yorkers headed to the beach or mountains. But ten years ago, Carnegie opened its (air-conditioned) doors in July for the NYC debut of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (aka NYO-USA), which was founded the previous year. The brainchild of Carnegie's Executive and Artistic Director Clive Gillinson, the orchestra had a lofty goal: take the best teenage musicians (16-19) from around the U.S., put them up for two weeks (all expenses paid) where they train with principal players from the country's top orchestras, then have them perform in Carnegie's Stern Auditorium before going out on tour. Dressed in matching red pants and Chuck Taylors, NYO-USA - and it's younger brothers NYO2 and NYO Jazz - have now become an annual NYC tradition. 

This summer, Clive apparently decided it was time to do something a bit more ambitious, as Carnegie hosted it's first-ever World Orchestra Week: seven consecutive nights of concerts by youth orchestras from around the world, alongside NYO-USA and NYO2. In a radio interview on WQXR, Gillinson said that World Orchestra Week - or WOW - was a direct response to a world of increasing chaos and conflict, be it Russia's invasion of Ukraine or the ongoing war in Gaza. The concept was straightforward: by bringing these kids together and letting them share music stands, meals and Instagram accounts, their differences fade away, establishing friendships and paving the way for a better, more peaceful future. 

For the youth orchestras based outside the U.S., it was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come to New York and perform at one of the most storied concert halls in the world. While those of us in the cheap seats sometimes take Carnegie Hall for granted, playing on this renowned stage can make an indelible impression on a young musician, raising their sights from playing in their after-school orchestra to something much greater. In certain cases, it can even lead to an escape from a life of poverty, war or repression.

NYO-USA with Marin Alsop, Carnegie Hall, 8/5/24

I wasn't able to attend the first four WOW concerts, featuring NYO2, the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela, the Africa United Youth Orchestra, and the Beijing Youth Orchestra. I did, however, make it for the rest, starting with NYO-USA on Monday (8/5). As before every WOW concert, the red-pantsed players entered through the audience, smiling widely as they traipsed down the aisles with their flutes, horns and cellos. (They let the basses use the stage doors.) Among their ranks were members of the Polyphony Ensemble: a group based in Nazareth that engages both Arab and Jewish young musicians, much like the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Polyphony was meant to be touring Europe last week, but had to cancel due to the ongoing unrest between Israel and Hamas. 

Led by veteran Marin Alsop - who conducted the entire program from memory - the first half of the concert was all-American. (Each youth orchestra was charged with bringing music from their country and culture.) Barber's single movement Symphony No. 1 (1936) sounded crisp and fresh, with an extended tender solo from oboist Ashley Na. Next was Gershwin's familiar Rhapsody in Blue, which is making the rounds this year as it celebrates the centenary of its premiere. (The second-ever performance was at Carnegie Hall.) Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet played the jazzy solo part with fluidity and reserve while mixing in bits of improvisation, as Gershwin did himself at the premiere. The brass section was especially tight, particularly the slide trombones and plunger trumpets. For an encore, they played Gershwin's Tin Pan Alley colleague James P. Johnson's "Victory Stride," a swinging piece that had Jean-Yves and various orchestra members standing for their solos.

Stephen Zhang and NYO-USAAfter intermission was Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade: a 45 minute extravaganza which has frankly never been one of my favorites. (After the NY Phil's performance in March, I said it lands, "somewhere between flying carpets and "Babes in Toyland.") No matter: this was a terrific reading full of brilliant solos, none more so than 16 year old concertmaster Stephen Zhang, whose flawless, heartfelt performance of the tricky violin part had all the mastery of someone twice - three times? - his age. For an encore, they performed Emmy-award winning composer Laura Karpman's jazzy, cinematic Swing, which she wrote for the occasion. 

The next evening (8/6), the hall wasn't quite as full for the European Union Youth Orchestra, which was somewhat inexplicable given its reputation as the world's most prestigious youth orchestra, dating to its founding by Claudio Abbado in 1976. (Might have had something to do with the torrential rain outside.) Each year, more than 3,000 applicants from across 27 countries in Europe - including such musical bastions as Austria, Germany, and Italy - apply for the 120 available seats. Seated among them on Tuesday were several members of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, which has been performing in exile since the Russian invasion in 2022.

Iván Fischer and the European Union Youth Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, 8/6/24Leading the EUYO was their new music director, the brilliant, iconoclastic conductor Iván Fischer, best known as the founder and director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In an interview with WQXR, Fischer indicated that he saw this as an opportunity to not just teach these young musicians (aged 16-26) but to encourage them to think outside the box.

“Too often," Fischer said, "orchestras play too mechanical, jaded and boring for my taste. I need involved musicians who take part creatively in risk taking. This is what I would like: to educate this generation in this direction, and use their musicianship and creativity, and not simply follow instructions and rules.”

As the German percussionist Clara de Groote pointed out in her introductory remarks, all three composers on the program are Europeans who ended up in the U.S. Within the first few bars of the British-born, NYC-based Anna Clyne's brief but vibrant Masquerade, based on a 17th century English drinking song, the string players were swaying in unison, emphatically digging into their instruments like their elder brethren in Vienna.

Isata Kanneh-Mason with Iván Fischer and the European Union Youth OrchestraErnst von Dohnányi, a once-renowned composer, pianist and pedagogue best known these days as the grandfather of Christoph, wrote his Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op. 25,  prior to his emigration from Budapest to Florida during WWII. Based on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", the music at first had a touch of the absurd, with British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason plunking out the familiar melody like a nursery school teacher. But from this simple tune, Dohnányi spun music of great sophistication, at turns sparkling and pensive. Kanneh-Mason hands raced up and down the keyboard, revealing an impressive mastery of this music unfamiliar to most in the hall. A solo piano version of Gershwin's "The Man I Love" made for a tasteful, subdued encore. 

Gustav Mahler, of course, moved from Vienna to New York in 1908 to take the helm of the Met Opera, and later the NY Phil, whom he led in the U.S. premiere of his Symphony No. 1, right here at Carnegie Hall in 1909. The resonance of that surely wasn't lost on the EUYO, who took the stage after intermission to tackle this wild carnival of a symphony. A challenge for any orchestra, Fischer, who conducted from memory, made things even more difficult by playing around with Mahler's dynamics and tempi. The first movement started very slowly, Fischer drawing out the tension between the strings and horns before eventually releasing a tremendous crescendo. I was blown away: the playing so clear and precise, it was absolutely on par with that of any major orchestra. The rest of the hour-long symphony was no less astonishing: the rollicking dance, the funeral march with it's "Frère Jacques" theme, and especially the bombastic finale, with its extended brass fanfares, crashing cymbals, and thunderous bass drums. It seemed impossible that these kids, all between the ages of 16 and 26, could perform this majestic, deeply personal music with such authority. Then again, Mahler wasn't much older (29) than they when he wrote it.

After a wild ovation, the kids all stood and played Jamie Texidor's raucous, Romani-tinged Amparito Roca, roving around the stage while Fischer watched smiling from the sidelines. A fittingly celebratory way to end an amazing show.

European Union Youth Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, 8/6/24Speaking of impossible, Wednesday night (8/7) brought something altogether different to Carnegie Hall: the Afghan Youth Orchestra, making their first stateside appearance in 11 years and first since fleeing their home after the Taliban took over in 2021. Among the many social atrocities the Taliban has inflicted on Afghan citizens, they have banned religious freedom, higher education for women, and music. Yes, you heard that right: as of today, it is illegal to perform or even listen to most music in Afghanistan. As trumpeter Zohra Ahmadi, 15, said from the stage before the concert, “Afghanistan is not singing anymore. It is a silent nation." (If one needed any reminder of the depravity of Afghan extremism, that same day an ISIS-K plot to attack Taylor Swift's concert in Vienna was foiled at the last minute.)

Fortunately, the Afghan Youth Orchestra - and its parent organization, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music - was given asylum by Portugal, where 284 students, faculty and staff now live, boys and girls studying literature, science, and of course music side-by-side.

"We miss our country," Ahmadi said, "we miss our schools, we miss our families. But, I am confident that sooner or later," her voice rising in defiance, "these dark days will be over and we will return and bring music and joy to our people. You will see tonight that no-one - no-one - can silence us.”

Afghan Youth Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, 8/7/24The first half of the program was devoted to traditional Afghan music, which sounds very similar to Indian music with its tabla and sitars, but enhanced by acoustic guitars, harmonium, and the resonant, lute-like rubab, often referred to as the Afghan national instrument. The repetitive, trance-like ragas and Sufi songs floated through the darkened hall, more atmospheric than lending itself to close listening, but joyous and carefree. 

Just when I was starting to wonder if this was what constituted "orchestral music" in Afghanistan, a group of young women took the stage to start the second half of the concert, carrying a mix of Afghan and western instruments. This was the all-woman Zohra Orchestra, which by its very existence is an act of defiance against the Taliban's "gender apartheid" that seeks to cloister women in the home without access to education or gainful employment, much less music. Together with female members of the European Union Youth Orchestra, they performed arrangements of a pair of songs that spoke directly about women's freedom in Afghanistan, including the removal of the forced hijab back in the more enlightened 1950's.

Afghan Youth Orchestra with Tiego Moreira da Silva, Carnegie Hall, 8/7/24The full Afghan Youth Orchestra then came on stage with their conductor Tiago Moreira da Silva to perform another dozen short pieces, mostly arrangements of traditional Afghan music alongside western music by Brahms (Hungarian Dance No. 5) and Kodály (Intermezzo from Háry János), as well as music composed for the occasion by da Silva (An Afghan in New York) and the AYO's former conductor William Harvey (Saudade do Afeganistão). If the music felt slight compared to some of the previous nights' high-flying grandeur, the novelty of hearing the rubab and sitar alongside strings and horns was a fair exchange. Yes, it was far too long of an evening at 3+ hours - including an extended speech by ANIM founder Dr. Ahmad Sarmast - but after more than a decade away, who could blame the kids for wanting to linger a bit? This was a triumph of art over ideology, of freedom of expression over repression, of collegiality over conflict. Not to mention a lot of fun, for both musicians and audience.

Time will tell if this inaugural World Orchestra Week accomplished its lofty goals of building lasting connections and bringing peace and cross-cultural dialogue through music. From a purely musical standpoint, this was hands down one of the best concert experiences of the year. Sometimes I wonder: are these youth orchestras actually better than professionals? Whether it's the TMC Orchestra at Tanglewood, Miami's New World Symphony, or the various WOW guests, the performances given by these young musicians are almost indistinguishable from those of their elder brethren. Except that the kids are typically far more energized and engaged, playing with the fury, freshness - and, yes, fear that comes with performing this fiendishly difficult music for the first time. Maybe the tenured adults at some of our better known orchestras could learn a thing or two from them.

WQXR-FM broadcast all seven concerts live, and if you missed any of the concerts, the livestreams can all be found here

Afghan Youth Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, 8/7/24
Afghan Youth Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, 8/7/24 Photo: Jennifer Taylor

More pics on the photo page:

Comments