Phila. Youth Orchestra Bravo Brass Ensemble Showcase Their Skills At 15th Annual Festival Concert

Philadelphia Youth Orchestra's Bravo Brass ensemble will proudly perform at their 15th Annual Festival Concert on Saturday, June 2 at 7:30 p.m. The performance will take place in the beautiful St. Mark's Church, 1625 Locust Street in Philadelphia, PA. Entitled Brass by Popular Demand, the program of music by John Williams, Mozart, Bernstein, Grieg, Gabrieli, Holst, and Wagner was selected based on responses to a public survey posted during the month of February. The concert will also feature three soloists-current Bravo Brass trumpeter Erik Larson, trombone alumnus Jason Stein, and Bravo Brass bass trombone faculty member and associate conductor Barry McCommon.

Bravo Brass is an all brass ensemble for promising middle and high-school instrumentalists directed and conducted by Paul Bryan, who is the Dean at Curtis Institute of Music. The Bravo Brass musicians have spent a great amount of time preparing for this performance. Bryan is proud of the students' commitment to the music and said, "The ensemble has been diligent at practicing and rehearsing for this concert. I am very confident in this group of young musicians and look forward to their performance on June 2nd."

General admission for this event is $15. Students under 18 are free. For more information, please call (215) 545-0502.

About Bravo Brass

Bravo Brass, founded in 1997, is the brass ensemble program of Philadelphia Youth Orchestra led by Director and Conductor Paul Bryan. The only year-round brass ensemble in the Philadelphia area and one of only three in the country, Bravo Brass offers the highest level of individual and ensemble training and performance opportunities for the most accomplished young brass musicians in the area.

About the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra:

Now in its 78th year of training tomorrow's leaders, the renowned Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization is one of the nation's oldest and most respected community music education and youth orchestra performance programs, providing talented young musicians from across the tri-state area with exceptional musical training. Students go on to excel in many diverse fields, and it is with pride that Philadelphia Youth Orchestra notes that many members of the prestigious Philadelphia Orchestra are alumni. For more information, please visit www.pyos.org.

The anchor group is the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO), conducted by President and Music Director Louis Scaglione, featuring 120 gifted instrumentalists who range in age from 14-21. Young musicians 12-18 years old are featured in PYO's companion ensemble, the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra, which is led by Director and Conductor Maestra Rosalind Erwin, who is Music Director and Conductor of Drexel University Orchestra. Philadelphia Young Musicians Orchestra (PYMO), directed by Maestro Kenneth Bean, is a beginning to intermediate-level full symphonic orchestra that provides most students with their first introduction to large orchestral playing featuring students age 10-17 years old. Bravo Brass, directed by Curtis Institute Dean of Faculty and Students, Paul Bryan, is an all brass ensemble for promising middle and high-school instrumentalists. PRYSM (Philadelphia Region Youth String Music) and PRYSM Young Artists ensembles provide string large ensemble and sectional master class instruction for beginning and intermediate musicians ages 6-14. The director and conductor of PRYSM is Gloria DePasquale, cellist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and conductor of PRYSM Young Artists is Andrea Weber. Tune Up Philly (TUP) is PYO's engagement program, directed by Paul Smith, that focuses on creating and inspiring true community by providing children in under-resourced communities with invaluable opportunities to learn and perform a differentiated orchestral music curriculum.

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