keeping tempo august 2014

For nearly 25 years, the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County has been provid-ing outstanding classical music experiences for its members. In recent years, YOBC has expanded its outreach efforts to pro-vide some of these same experiences to nonmem-bers in the community at large. This includes a “bring your friend to Wind Symphony” day, inviting the community to attend our master classes, and chamber perform-ances in local churches and tourist venues. One of the largest outreach efforts is the Stu-dents in Concert program in the Bristol Township School District. In two years, the SIC program has served approxi-mately 100 mid-dle school music students, sup-ported the BTSD instru-mental music program, and introduced YOBC to seven new students. This year, we will be exploring some new out-

Student Spotlight: Noah Harrison

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Conductors’ Notes: YOBC’s Wind Ensemble

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That’s Not on My List! 3

Music Runs in YOBC Families

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YOBC 2014 Italy Tour 4–5

Four Concerto Competition Winners to Perform This Season

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Important Dates: Saturday, September 6:

Orientation and Curtain-Raiser

Sunday, September 7: Fall Rehearsals Begin, all ensembles

Sunday, September 14: Parents meetings, 2:15 or 5:00 PM

October 5–19: YOBC Practice-a-Thon

November 22–23, 2014: Fall Concerts

Inside this issue: YOBC’s Community Outreach Programs

Volume 6, Number 1, August 2014

reach efforts. The first, already on the calendar, is a musical reading of The Remarkable Farkle McBride at Barnes & No-ble in Langhorne, on De-cember 6. The children’s book by John Lithgow is “a tale about a prodigy whose quest for the per-fect instrument leads him through virtually every section of the orchestra.” YOBC students will read and perform parts of the book from 2:00–3:00 PM. Symphony Orchestra

violinist Kathe-rine Cramer has proposed a new idea to pair cur-rent YOBC stu-dents as practice partners with other student musicians in the county. She envi-sions a team of YOBC Advanced Division volun-teers working with students one-on-one or in

small groups to teach practice habits, tech-nique, and to prepare them for YOBC, BCMEA Counties, or other audi-tions.

“How many times have I thought ‘I wish I knew that earlier’?” Katherine wonders. The practice partnership may begin with just a survey of YOBC students asking, “What did you wish you had known before?” The feedback would be useful for new music students who are learning how to practice the right way. These outreach ef-forts demonstrate YOBC’s continued com-mitment to supporting music education. Stu-dents come to YOBC with a special love for music and a desire to develop their musical talent. These programs allow them to share that love with the community.

Keeping Tempo

Katherine Cramer

At this time a year ago, I was in a real quandary. I had been asked to direct the YOBC Wind Ensemble, a band that had been a part of the YOBC program for as long as I have been aware of YOBC. I had had pri-vate clarinet students who played in it. I knew of students who were in the Neshaminy School District music program, where I worked for 30 years, who played in it. And yet, the 2013–14 season was to be a new beginning in an important way. A new ensemble had been added, a third band named Fanfare Winds, which Mr. Sweetsir would direct. Although Fanfare Winds was officially the new group, everyone from the previous year’s Wind En-semble had moved up into it with Mr. Sweetsir, so the Wind Ensem-ble that I had been asked to direct was really the new band, formed with players who were moving up from Wind Symphony and new players who had auditioned during the summer. My task even before the first rehearsal—despite know-ing very few of the new Wind En-semble players and realizing that they had never before played to-gether as an ensemble—was to de-cide what kind of music we’d be able to do. After a lot of thinking,

and with some trepidation, I de-cided on an initial program for the November concert. But would any of it be too hard for the group? Would some of it be too easy? I had little doubt the Wind Ensemble could eventually learn everything I’d picked, even the hardest ones, but could they do it by the Novem-ber concert? There was only one way to find out, I knew. Start working in September and see how things go. As we know now, the band con-quered the music with little diffi-culty, and, after what seemed like so few rehearsals, the concert went wonderfully. I hope the members of

the Wind Ensemble, then and after the next concert in April, were as proud of what they had accom-plished as I was. Now, with a year of playing together behind us, I hope that we can reach even greater musical heights and that our new members will find their experience rich with musical re-ward. I’m looking forward to the coming year as the director of the YOBC Wind Ensemble. I know now that together we are up to the chal-lenge.

Karl Krelove Director, YOBC Wind Ensemble

and Clarinet Ensemble

Conductors’ Notes: YOBC’s Wind Ensemble

Keeping Tempo

tudent potlight: Noah Harrison

Noah Harrison, an 8th grader at the Quaker School at Horsham, will lead the trombone section of this year’s Wind Symphony. He has been playing trombone for four years and is begin-ning his third year with YOBC. The trombone appeals to Noah as a unique instrument because of its slide. Hoping to be a successful musician in the future, he plays whenever he can. YOBC is just one of the outlets for Noah’s music. This summer he played at the Pennsbury School District summer music pro-gram and really enjoyed it.

Noah first heard about YOBC from a flyer distributed at school. “I got a flyer about YOBC at the end of 5th grade and decided to try out. I wanted to join because I was starting a new school for 6th grade, and it unfortunately did not have an instrumental music program. I wanted to continue to play the trombone and be part of a band.” Heading into his third year with YOBC, Noah believes it is “an excel-lent music program. Participating in YOBC is helping me become a much a much better musician.”

When he is not playing music, Noah enjoys playing electronics, swimming, going on adventures, and hanging out with friends.

Executive Director’s Corner: That’s Not on My List!


I am a planner. I create order in my life with schedules, checklists, charts, and spreadsheets. I like to nail down the details, check off the steps, and stay on target. I once read a biography of Winston Chur-chill. He’s my kind of guy! He left nothing to chance. He meticulously rehearsed his speeches, practicing the exact inflection and gestures he would use, even including hesita-tions and “corrections” to lend his words an air of spontaneity. I understand this kind of prepa-ration! I am happiest when I know what to expect and everything is go-ing “according to plan.” I am decid-edly not happy when the plan starts to go south. And yet, sometimes the greatest opportunities unfold when the unexpected happens. My most recent “unexpected moment” took place at Padova, in the yard of the Palazzo Zucker-mann, during YOBC’s concert tour of Italy this summer. Our students were preparing for an outdoor con-cert, but storm clouds loomed over-head. Despite the threat of rain, a small audience had gathered to hear the performance. Shortly after the concert began, the dampness and scattered raindrops gave way to a full downpour, forcing disap-pointed musicians and audience members alike to take shelter in the large lobby of an open building just off the square. It was at this point that events took an unex-pected turn. As conductors and chaperones scurried about the drenched stage trying to secure equipment, the sound of music filled the courtyard. I followed the sound into the build-ing to find YOBC students perform-ing, on their own, without the aid of a conductor, music, chairs, seating charts, or proper lighting. It wasn’t on the schedule or any list! Yet there they stood, in a crooked half circle, improvising to a blues bass line, sounding absolutely terrific as

Someone once said, “The only thing worse than a plan is no plan.” That is frequently true, but every now and then we are re-minded that although planning is a good and necessary thing, the un-expected can open the door for truly great opportunities.

—Colleen Sweetsir YOBC Executive Director

they performed before an apprecia-tive audience that cheered and ap-plauded them on. Sitting down on the floor, I soaked up the music and the moment. It was a great concert and an evening full of opportunity. Faced with the unexpected, YOBC students stepped out and created their own concert. The audience who had gathered to hear a traditional concert experienced something truly special and original. And I had the opportunity to be hum-bled and inspired by the ingenuity of our students.

Thanks to YOBC parent and tour chap-erone Trista Walker, you can share this improv experience — and other per-formances from the Italy tour — on her YouTube channel.

You know David Osenberg as the emcee at YOBC concerts. Music Director and Host at WWFM, David is also the parent of two YOBC wind players, a member of our Board of Directors, and a musician himself. Hear him this weekend at the Langhorne Heritage Farm. The Straight Ahead Big Band began 10 years ago as a part-time band for professionals and area music teachers to come and enjoy playing big band jazz. Today the SABB does a limited amount of concerts but are happy to give their time in support of the nonprofit Langhorne Open Space organization by playing at the Heri-tage Farm. Find out more about the band at thestraightaheadbigband.com.

Music Runs in YOBC Families

YOBC’s 2014 Italy Tour...What will you remember most?

Keeping Tempo

My favorite memory is walking up the hill in Assisi and seeing the town from above, and the colosseum. Thank you so much.

Sightseeing in the rain.

Gorgeous music in incredible venues.

My favorite mem-ory is going to the beach and the crowd listening to our last concert in Florence.


Great concert in Florence Saturday night! 8 encores for a few thousand people.

Food, friends, fun. How camera-shy Mr. and Mrs. Sweetsir are.

The YOUTH ORCHESTRA OF BUCKS COUNTY, Pennsylvania (YOBC) was founded in 1991 with the sponsorship and support of Bucks

County Community College. Its mis-sion is to create opportunities for young musicians to achieve artistic ex-cellence through enriching classical musical experiences. In 23 seasons the organization has grown from a single, 60-member ensemble to 14 ensembles with over 240 young musicians.

252 Hollow Branch Lane Yardley, PA 19067

Email: [email protected]

yobc.org

Keeping Tempo

Four YOBC students were se-lected as soloists from 11 highly qualified contenders in this year’s Concerto Competition, which was held in June 2014. Congratula-tions to Cheyenne King-Bails (violin), Paul Hutchings (trumpet), Justin Shaw (piano), and Eric Cy-phers (cello) who will each play at one of the YOBC concerts this sea-son. Cheyenne, a junior at Phila-delphia’s school for Creative and Performing Arts, has been playing violin for nine years. She is plan-ning to major in violin perform-ance and loves to share and col-laborate with other musicians. She will play Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor with the YOBC Sym-phony Orchestra in the Fall Con-cert. Paul, a junior at Central Bucks West is in his fifth year

with YOBC, playing in Symphony Orchestra and Fanfare Winds. In addition to playing trumpet and trombone, Paul composes and ar-ranges music, too. He will play the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with Fanfare Winds this fall. Justin is a clarinetist in YOBC’s Fanfare Winds and Sym-phony Orchestra. He will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 with Symphony Orchestra this fall. A senior at Central Bucks East, Justin has become a level-10 pian-ist with high honors or honors in music history, music theory, and performance assessments for the Royal Conservatory Music Develop-ment Program. Eric is a senior at Archbishop Wood High School who currently studies with Derek Barnes of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Bar-nes has arranged master classes for

Eric with world renowned cellists Johannes Moser and Yo-Yo Ma. Eric will perform the Lalo Concerto for Cello and Orchestra with the YOBC Symphony Orchestra in the spring 2015 concert.

Four Concerto Competition Winners to Perform this Season

keeping tempo august 2014

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