The stage is set for the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary celebration Saturday, April 18, at the McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn.
EYSO artistic director Matthew Sheppard said the day will start with five hours of dress rehearsals, allowing for the organization’s various ensembles to familiarize themselves with the auditorium.
“In April, we typically perform a runout concert somewhere besides our usual home, which is the Blizzard Theatre at Elgin Community College,” Sheppard said.
That’s in part because the EYSO now serves about 400 students from more than 70 communities across the Chicago metro area, Sheppard said. Plus, the McAninch will provide a little more space for what’s being planned for the celebration.
Founded by Robert Hanson of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, the EYSO’s first ensemble had 55 string players performing under the name Elgin Area Youth Orchestras, according to a news release.
In 1976, it gave its inaugural performance in the Elgin Community College lounge for the Elgin Symphony Women’s League. Later that year, the group presented its first public concert at Jacobs High School in Algonquin.
The EYSO now offers three full orchestras, two string orchestras, a brass choir, a flute choir, a percussion ensemble, a chamber music institute, four honors chamber ensembles, and the Starter Strings program. Starter Strings expands access to music education for elementary school students attending Oakhill (cq) in Streamwood, O’Neal (cq) in Elgin, and Dundee Highlands in West Dundee, Sheppard said.
With so much to offer, the typical EYSO performance day at ECC involves three separate concerts, Sheppard said. In Glen Ellyn, following a 5 p.m. reception, there will be a 2-hour concert in which each ensemble will play one or two pieces.
One of the musicians will be violinist Hanna Marszalek,16, who is a junior at Jacobs and who has been studying with the EYSO for five years. She will be playing two numbers with the Youth Symphony, the EYSO’s most advanced orchestra.
Marszalek will be featured for her first time as soloist with the Youth Symphony that evening, on Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity and am looking forward to performing with some of my closest friends,” Marszalek said.
Through being part of the EYSO, Marszalek said she’s built communication skills and learned the value of teamwork, how to compromise and empathy. It has also solidified her dream of pursuing a career in music as a performer and as a private teacher.
In the audience at “The MAC” will be Elgin chiropractor Clare Ollayos, Ollayas, a former ECC trustee, lifelong patron of the arts, and current EYSO advisory board member, has been involved with the EYSO for more than a quarter century.
Olllayos’ involvement began in 1999 when the then-artistic director Randal Swiggum wanted to feature excerpts from the Nutcracker ballet in an EYSO concert.
“That’s also when I met the late, loved Kathy Matthews, who was EYSO’s executive director. I danced in and helped produce the Lisa Boehm Ballet Theatre Nutcracker every year for three decades. Kathy and I made the Nutcracker happen with EYSO,” Ollayos said.
Ollayos feels that the keys to the EYSO’s growth and continued success come from the support it gets from the community, having ECC’s arts facilities to call home, and the excellence of its teaching and organization.
“With the EYSO, for its students, it’s not just about playing an instrument, but exploring what the music means,” Ollayos said.
EYSO’s approach has led to about a third of its students going on to pursue music-related college degrees, Sheppard said. He’s also thrilled to hear from former students who have careers in other professions who tell him what they learned with the EYSO has helped them in their careers as lawyers, architects and in other fields.
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One of those former EYSO students is David Sands. Sands, an Aurora native, took to playing cello when he was 10 years old. He took part in the EYSO from 2004, when he was in the 7th grade, through graduating from Batavia High School. Sands went on to get an undergraduate and a master’s degree in performance from DePaul University in Chicago.
These days, at DePaul and on a part-time basis, Sands teaches stringed instruments to those learning to be school music teachers. He also oversees playOUT! (cq), a Chicago-based nonprofit that he started which “commissions and performs works that challenge conventions and celebrate queer artistry,” according to its website.
Sands’ full-time job is senior advancement manager for Apollo’s Fire, a Grammy-winning baroque orchestra. As that group has a performance in Chicago’s Hyde Park on April 18, Sands won’t be attending the EYSO’s 50th bash.
Sands said being part of the EYSO gave him the opportunity to meet and learn from guest musicians such as violinist Midori Goto. It also inspired him to his career path and to his activism.
“Through the EYSO’s clever programming and challenging repertoire, we learned beyond just the notes on the page,” Sands said. “Great programming and great interpretation come from understanding the human story behind the music.”
For tickets and more information about the EYSO and its 50th anniversary celebration, go to www.eyso.org/event/50th-anniversary-celebration-concert.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.