The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
ORCHESTRA GROWS AS MUSIC FLOWS
Enrollment more than doubles in recent years
It’s almost time to tune up for local students who join their skills and instruments to make music together.
The Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra is preparing for its 49th season of fall, winter and spring concerts and musical education in between.
Its leaders say the orchestra’s ensembles offer venues for players to hone their technical skills reading, playing and understanding music, while meeting new people and making new friends.
“We try to approach every instance of music making as a learning experience,” said General Manager Colin Holter.
“Absolutely — that’s well said,” added Andrew Machamer, executive and artistic director for NOYO.
The program started in the late 1960s as the Lorain County Youth Orchestra.
“Originally this was formed because there were not opportunities for young musicians to play in an ensemble that was of a level that would challenge them,” Machamer said. NOYO supports school orchestra programs, but no schools had symphonic
“We try to approach every instance of music making as a learning experience.”
— Colin Holter, general manager of Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra
orchestras with string and wind instruments, he said.
“That alone is enough for us to be in existence, that they have an opportunity, because without a symphonic orchestra you aren’t able to play the type of literature that orchestras are known for,” advanced compositions that require string and woodwind instruments, Machamer said.
The orchestra, for musicians age 8 to 22, draws more than half its members from Lorain County, but youths come from as far as Wayne and Summit counties for Sunday rehearsals.
Performances generally are in Oberlin, but the leaders would like to expand
the area where the ensembles play.
Machamer, 32, is a native of Harrisburg, Pa., and Holter, 34, grew up in Frederick, Md.
They became friends while studying for their doctoral degrees at the University of Minnesota. They both moved to northern Ohio with their wives who each took music faculty positions at Baldwin Wallace University in 2015.
Along with the students, the orchestra happens with help from a large group of supporters, including time and energy of parent volunteers and financial help from charitable foundations.
The youths learn from Oberlin faculty and student musicians who rank among the best in the nation. The Oberlin College and Conservatory offers concert spaces,
including Finney Chapel, and a library of music.
“One of the things that makes NOYO special in that musical community is our access to world-class resources through the Conservatory of Music,” Machamer said. “We’re very lucky, we know that.”
NOYO is a supplement not a replacement - for the music programs in local schools, they said.
“My feeling about Lorain County is that, given the economic straits of the schools here and their resources and their ability to support music programs, they punch pretty far above their weight,” Holter said.
“We have many musicians in our ensembles from Lorain County who are really, really terrific and that’s completely due to the hard work of their school music instructors and their private
instructors,” he said. “We are a gear in that machine.”
Philharmonia, the high school symphonic orchestra with winds, brass, percussion and strings, is NOYO’s flagship performance group.
But it is far from the only one. As NOYO expands its ensembles, more programs draw more students, who then need more instructors.
David Pope, Philharmonia conductor and NOYO music director, leads orchestras for Elyria schools. Peggie Willett, conductor for NOYO Sinfonietta Strings, directs elementary and middle orchestras for Avon schools, while Katie Holaway, NOYO conductor of Amati Strings, teaches orchestra for Avon Lake schools.
Machamer will direct Wind Symphony, an ensemble
for middle school students, and Holter will direct a new chamber ensemble geared for composition and improvisation. Operations Manager Fabian Fuertes also serves as a woodwind coach.
NOYO seems to have found the right formula for growth.
In the 2013-2014 season, NOYO had 70 students in two groups. The 2016-2017 season finished with 170 students in its programs.
“That number is going to continue to go up just because we have started these new opportunities,” Machamer said.
“It’s kind of like, if you build it, they will come. There’s a need for these types of experiences. Students want to play in these ensembles because it’s fun and it’s enjoyable, they learn and grow.”