PYP Launches Landmark 95th Concert Season With A Free Mix Tape

Hearing is believing! Portland's locally-grown orchestra returns for a landmark 95th season with an invigorating new lineup of performances in the historic Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Astonishing audiences since 1925, Portland Youth Philharmonic will soon be the first U.S. organization for young musicians to reach its 100th anniversary.

To commemorate 95 years of fearless artistry, adventurous programming, and excellent performances, PYP will release a free digital mix tape entitled Hear PYP on Friday, July 6, 2018, through SoundCloud and the orchestra's newsletter. Featuring live renditions of Beethoven's powerful and majestic Symphony No. 5, Tchaikovsky's rich, vibrant Symphony No. 4, and Butterworth's evocative A Shropshire Lad, the mix tape will allow audiences around the world to hear for themselves the orchestra the Chicago Tribune called "brilliant in all departments." To receive a download link for the mix tape, individuals may subscribe to PYP's newsletter at www.portlandyouthphil.org.

"We will have a wonderfully varied menu for Season 95," says Musical Director David Hattner. "We will definitely present some unusual music as always, as well as put our PYP stamp on some of the all-time favorites. 95 years is a long time to maintain a spotless artistic reputation. I hope we'll entice a few thousand more folks from our area who haven't yet heard the orchestra in person to come and find out that Portland Youth Philharmonic is the real deal."

PYP will kick off Season 95 on Saturday, November 10, 2018, with The American Scene, showcasing distinguished composer William Grant Still's The Far West, a three-movement suite from his much larger work The American Scene, which explores American identity in different geographical regions of the country. Known as "the Dean" of African-American composers, Still captures in this suite themes depicting America's unique western soul. Also on the program, PYP will reveal the heart of Czech composer Antonín Dvo?ák, whose expansive Symphony No. 6 is radiant and robust with pastoral elements expressing the sheer joy of being alive.

All four PYP ensembles and an alumni orchestra will take the Schnitzer stage on Wednesday, December 26, 2018, for Concert-at-Christmas: Thunder and Lightning. PYP's 57th annual post-holiday concert will dazzle audiences with the vibrancy of Johann Strauss (ii)'s Thunder and Lightning Polka, as well as Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, and much more.

On Saturday, March 2, 2019, PYP will offer the Jeremiah Symphony, celebrating the 100th birthdays of Leonard Bernstein and PYP's second Music Director Jacob Avshalomov with master works by each composer. Opening with Johannes Brahms' powerful Tragic Overture the program continues with Avshalomov's exhilarating tone poem, The Taking of T'ung Kuan. Concluding the concert is Bernstein's deeply emotional Jeremiah Symphony, sung in Hebrew by mezzo soprano soloist Laura Beckel Thoreson.

PYP will conclude its groundbreaking 95th season on Sunday, May 5, 2019, with the powerfully moving Symphony No. 1 by the multi-talented young Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach, followed by PYP alumnus Max Blair as oboe soloist in Bohuslav Martinu's beautiful Oboe Concerto. The performance will end on a joyful note with the Overture to La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach, a celebratory parody of Helen's elopement with Paris of Troy, which sparked the Trojan War.

Season 95 ticket packages for multiple performances start at $27, and may be purchased online now at www.portlandyouthphil.org. Single tickets go on sale on Monday, August 6th.

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