An Exciting Weekend at the Young Artist Summer Program

What an incredible weekend! Friday was our first faculty recital, which featured a percussion-heavy program, including a violin-percussion sonata written by our very own YASP faculty Jonathan Bailey Holland.  Then on Saturday, participants presented their first chamber recital, where six chamber ensembles performed the pieces they’d been working on throughout the week, with their families and peers in the audience.

Saturday also saw our first orchestra recital, led by the head conductor of YASP, Paul Bryan. The first piece was Samuel Barber’s Symphonic March—scored for symphonic band, the March showcases the woodwinds, brass and percussion sections. The second work on the program was George Walker’s touching and sentimental Lyric for Strings, for string orchestra. The YASP orchestra followed in the footsteps of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, which performed Lyric for Strings with Dr. Walker in attendance earlier this year. The full orchestra came together by the third and final work of the afternoon, Manuel de Falla’s spirited Three-cornered Hat Suite.

Sunday was jam-packed with activities for our participants. In the morning, students jumped at the opportunity to play for some of their peers in our first open performance, which offers a place to perform in a low-stress, casual environment among their friends.

Later in the afternoon, all of our composers took a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where they experienced Network for New Music featuring the premiere of a brand new work: composer Pierre Jalbert’s Light, Line, Shadow was written as a response to Edward Hopper’s painting Road and Trees. Other participants took a trip to Penn Treaty Park, where they sat on the grass and watched a performance by the members of the Philadelphia Orchestra brass and percussion sections. The park was also filled with food tents and activities such as bounce houses and face-painting!

It was an exciting and busy first weekend, and everyone here at YASP is ready and rearing to go onto our second week!

—Mary Kim, Princeton Intern for Civic Service

To learn more about the Young Artist Summer Program, visit curtis.edu/YASP.