THEME MUSIC - Adolphus Hailstork - Sonata da Chiesa

Jeff Spurgeon: From Carnegie Hall Live in New York City, we bring you a concert by the National Youth Orchestra of the States of America, an ensemble of young musicians ages 16 to 19 from across the country. Marin Alsop will conduct them in Samuel Barber's Symphony No. 1, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon, and joining me for this broadcast is the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, Clive Gillinson.

Good evening, Clive.

Clive Gillinson: Hi, Jeff. Wonderful to be with you.

Jeff Spurgeon: Wonderful to have you with us again. This is a historic week at Carnegie Hall. We're about to hear the fifth concert in Carnegie's World Orchestra Week, festival of youth orchestras from five continents. 700 young people from Africa, and Asia, and Europe, and North and South America are here in New York City for this event. What are the goals of World Orchestra Week and how are you seeing those goals being reached so far by now?

Clive Gillinson: We wanted to pay tribute to the extraordinary work that's going on with music all around the world and the fantastic orchestras that have been created. In addition, it's about bringing together the most brilliant young musicians from all around the world and having them all get to know each other, interact, and after all, with National Youth Orchestras, probably only half the people go into professional music.

These will be leaders in their countries in lots and lots of different ways as well. To have those connections worldwide on an ongoing basis where people are friends, they know more and understand more about each other's cultures and countries, we feel makes a huge contribution and it inspires and lifts all of them to work together in this way.

Jeff Spurgeon: It's not just about music, it's about the whole world. The performances we'll hear in just a few minutes are by Carnegie's National Youth Orchestra, the NYO, 10th anniversary of the orchestra. How did it begin? I love this story.

[laughter]

Clive Gillinson: It all began I guess, when I was a 14-year-old kid and got into the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and that was, frankly, not only the greatest moment of my life up to that point, but it was something that really has shaped my life ever since because it transformed the fact that music had to be part of my life for the rest of my life, that experience and that inspiration.

When I arrived here, I couldn't believe there was no National Youth Orchestra. I can understand to some extent why it didn't exist before the age of auditioning online because the fact is it would have taken so long to go around this vast country. People would have been too old. The ones who we auditioned at the beginning, they'd have been too old for the orchestra by the time we got all the way around.

In fact, it was something that could only be done now, but we decided we had to create it. We then created NYO2 which was a younger orchestra for those students who perhaps hadn't had all the opportunities, access to best teaching, things like that. Then NYO Jazz, which was all part of our original vision, because NYO obviously and jazz is really America's art form.

Jeff Spurgeon: The American music form.

Clive Gillinson: Those are the ones we've created. This particular project then came out of what next could one do that actually really was about further developing, and nurturing the future of music.

Jeff Spurgeon: We mentioned that there are youth orchestras here from five continents. In this concert, there's also a small group of musicians from a particularly troubled place in the world joining NYO. Tell us about the Polyphony Ensemble.

Clive Gillinson: Polyphony is a group. It's run by an extraordinary young musician, Nabeel Abboud Ashkar, who created this to train young Arab musicians. They are actually taught there, but mostly gratis by Jewish musicians from Tel Aviv.

Jeff Spurgeon: Happened they're based in Nazareth.

Clive Gillinson: They're based in Nazareth, and he's created this school. We've worked with him for a long time, and firstly, helping to do what we can to support the work he's doing there. Then we've brought the Nazareth Orchestra here, and we'll bring them here again, which is a combination of his young Arab players and some Jewish players as well. We've brought some of those players over to be part of the National Youth Ensembles this time.

Jeff Spurgeon: It's an amazing, amazing part of World Orchestra Week. Thanks, Clive. I know you have other things to do, including hearing the NYO. We appreciate you talking to us now, and we'll see you again at intermission.

Clive Gillinson: I'll see you later, Jeff. Thank you.

Jeff Spurgeon: All right. Thanks so much. Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, the man behind a great deal of what you have been enjoying in these broadcasts. The members of the National Youth Orchestra are chosen by audition. They send in videos of themselves, as you heard Clive say. This year's NYO comprises players from 35 or so states, including Alaska and Hawaii and Puerto Rico, 99 names or so on the roster, a couple of apprentices as well.

28 of these players have some previous experience as members of NYO2, Carnegie's National Youth Orchestra for the younger players. Again, you heard Clive mention that. More than a dozen members of this orchestra have been in NYO in a previous season. For the past week or so, they've been working together, getting to know each other on the campus of the State University of New York in Purchase, about 25 miles north of New York City.

This year, NYO USA is conducted by Marin Alsop, who also conducted the 2017 edition of NYO. In a separate conversation we had with Clive Gillinson a few days ago, he told us Marin Alsop suits this assignment to a tee.

Clive Gillinson: Marin is wonderful with young musicians. In fact, I first met her in 1990 when she was a student of Leonard Bernstein at the Pacific Music Festival. She was working with young musicians then and very, very early in her career. She's done a tremendous amount of work. She did a lot of fantastic work in Baltimore with young musicians, similar in Sao Paulo. She's somebody we always love to work with on education projects, and she really inspires the orchestras.

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: You heard the stage door open. Our concertmaster is now on stage getting ready to tune the NYO for the first part of this performance tonight. Marin Alsop told us in turn, as Clive says, she's inspiring to the musicians. She told us the musicians inspire her, too.

Marin Alsop: It's exciting because the kids are super talented and super enthusiastic, and the team prepares them really, really well. By the time I come in, they really sound good, and it's in shape that I can just add to it. I don't have to build it from scratch. I think it's mostly about passion and enthusiasm which they have in abundance.

Jeff Spurgeon: Now you've heard something about World Orchestra Week and the musicians. Now about the music. Marin Alsop told us how this program came together. Maybe we'll hear that in a few minutes because, in fact, the stage door opened, and out on stage now is Marin Alsop, ready to bring you the first work on this program. It's a work written by a composer not much older than these people. Samuel Barber was 25 years old when he wrote his Symphony No. 1. Now with the NYO all on its feet, Marin Alsop on the podium, we're going to hear that work from the National Youth Orchestra of the United States. Samuel Barber's Symphony in One Movement from the NYO, from Carnegie Hall Live.

[MUSIC - Samuel Barber: Symphony in One Movement] [MUSIC - Samuel Barber: Symphony in One Movement]

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: Music of Samuel Barber from the 1930s. He was just 25 when he wrote this work, his Symphony in One Movement. Marin Alsop told us that not very many people have played this piece, but you just heard it played by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, conducted by Marin Alsop. Coming to you live from Carnegie Hall. This concert, part of World Orchestra Week, a festival of youth orchestras from five continents at Carnegie.

Well, Marin decided to go back and take a quick curtain call. I think she's going to ask the orchestra to sit down and then stand up again for their curtain call. She's singling out a few of the single players as well. There's some work to be done before our next piece on this program. As the applause continues for the players of the NYO, as conductor Marin Alsop points them out individual by individual.

A few players are drifting off stage because we have to change some things up for the next work, which is 100 years old this year. George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was premiered in New York City in February of 1924. Not here at Carnegie Hall, but a bit less than a mile away at the now disused Aeolian Hall on 42nd Street. Gershwin was the pianist in the first performance given with the famous Paul Whiteman orchestra.

The soloist with Marin Alsop in the National Youth Orchestra in just a few minutes will be the French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet making a happy return engagement. Had a very good time with the NYO when he was soloist with the orchestra in 2018. Conductor Marin Alsop is happy that he's with this year's edition of the orchestra.

Marin Alsop: Jean-Yves is one of the great pianists, great artists of all time, and I'm very humbled to call him my good friend. He's a wonderful human being, a wonderful citizen of the world. He loves working with young people.

Jeff Spurgeon: Now a couple of words from members of the orchestra.

Sydney Richardson: Hi, everyone. Oh, is it on?

Jeff Spurgeon: [chuckles] Yes, it is.

Sydney Richardson: Hello. Hi, everyone.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: My name is Sydney Richardson. I am a horn player from Longview, Texas.

[applause]

Daniel Samoilov: Hello, everyone. I'm Daniel Samoilov, and I play the violin. I'm from Israel.

[applause]

Daniel Samoilov: Me and my seven other colleagues were here, playing in this ensemble, together we're from Polyphony Ensemble which is based in Nazareth. We have come to prove that you can live in peace through music, and I'm really grateful for Carnegie Hall that gave us this opportunity.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: Today is the fifth day of the World Orchestra Week Festival here at Carnegie Hall. We have in the house right now four lovely orchestras who I would like to recognize right now. If you are in the Africa United Youth Orchestra, please stand up and be recognized.

[applause]

Daniel Samoilov: If you're from the Beijing Youth Orchestra, I would like you to please stand up.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: The European Union Youth Orchestra.

[applause]

Daniel Samoilov: If you're from the Afghan Youth Orchestra, I would like you to please stand up.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: The purpose of this WOW Festival is to unite young musicians from across the globe. With each performance that we have held this week and the following performances from tonight, each orchestra has brought music from their continent, country, and culture. Tonight, we are bringing you American classics from the leading American composers, George Gershwin and Samuel Barber.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: Festivals like this, NYO, and all of the other orchestras, is where our worlds start to collide. Sorry.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: Everyone on this stage were once strangers to each other, but now we will all be lifelong friends. All the people on here we will see in future performances, festivals, wherever it may be in the world and it's just the beauty of music. It brings the world together, and it's really amazing.

[applause]

Daniel Samoilov: I would like to thank everyone who has done an enormous job to put 700 players in this great hall. Also, in today's morning, Gustavo Dudamel has worked with us with the whole seven other orchestras, and we've played some pieces together which just proves that you can be together through music. I would like to thank everybody who has done their job to put us together.

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: Again, thank you to everyone with the Carnegie Hall staff, NYO, all the orchestras, the visiting orchestras. Thank you for putting together this monstrous festival. It is truly amazing. [laughs]

[applause]

Sydney Richardson: Thank you to all of the wonderful musicians in the audience and on stage. Y'all are the best. To the audience, thank you guys for coming, and to all of the parents and guardians, friends, family, orchestra directors, band directors who have supported us through our journeys as young musicians and as we continue to grow, we really cannot be here without any of you guys. Thank you.

[applause]

Daniel Samoilov: Thank you very much and enjoy the concert.

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: Comments by horn player Sidney Richardson of Longview, Texas, and violinist Daniel Samoilov of Israel, a member of the Polyphony Ensemble. Before we are ready for this performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, another work by a young composer. Gershwin was just 25 when he wrote this work, which had its premiere 100 years ago, 1924 in New York City.

As our concertmaster, Didi Stone of Alpharetta, Georgia, wields his keyboard skills playing that A on the piano to help the orchestra re-tune. We are ready to welcome Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Maestro, our wonderful conductor back with us once again, Marin Alsop. There goes the stage door open and out they go. Jean-Yves wearing a sparkly jacket. The members of NYO are clad in among other things. The Converse, All-Stars. Jean-Yves has a very glittery pair of Converse All-Stars himself, appropriate to the occasion. From NYO and Carnegie Hall Live, it's Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

[MUSIC - George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue] [applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: From Carnegie Hall live, a performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The soloist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the conductor, Marin Alsop, the orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. The 11th edition of this enterprise by Carnegie Hall to create a national orchestra of young people from all across America. About 35 or so states are represented in this year's edition, including players from Alaska and Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Now stepping off stage, our soloists and our conductor but they'll be back on stage.

[background noise]

They're making their plan and now back out they go, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Marin Alsop. This is a familiar piece of business for these two for they made a recording of this work a number of years ago when Marin Alsop was music director at the Baltimore Symphony. They've revisited the work now with the National Youth Orchestra, the NYO. This concert is part of Carnegie Hall's World Orchestra Week, a festival of youth orchestras from around the world. Now I think we're going to get an encore and words from Marin Alsop.

Marin Alsop: [unintelligible 00:54:43] Hello. Yes. We have a special short encore for you by another great American composer who you may not have heard of, although he worked for the same piano roll company at the same time as George Gershwin did. His name is James P. Johnson. He wrote The Charleston but we're going to play for you a tune right now called Victory Stride, and I thank Jean-Yves for joining us.

[applause]

[MUSIC - James P. Johnson: Victory Stride]

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: Victory Stride, a piece of music by the great American musician, James P. Johnson, one of the fathers of stride piano. He accompanied Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters in concert. He made piano roles, as Marin Alsop said, with George Gershwin, and he loved writing for the symphony orchestra. We might ask Marin Alsop about this encore later on. She helped to bring this music back in the world a few years ago.

James P. Johnson's Victory Stride, performed by the NYO-USA, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, conducted by Marin Alsop in a broadcast coming to you from Carnegie Hall Live, part of World Orchestra Week. I'm Jeff Spurgeon, backstage at Carnegie Hall, alongside Clive Gillinson, the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall. A surprise work on this concert, I think, for so many of us, Clive.

Clive Gillinson: Yes, but what an incredible piece. It sums up everything this festival is about, which is joyfulness, everybody being together, everybody having a great time together all around music. Spectacular.

Jeff Spurgeon: A fabulous piece of American jazz-influenced orchestra work by an underappreciated artist. Well, Marin Alsop and the NYO are bringing Victory Stride back into prominence. With that, we've reached the of this first half. We should get some words from Jean-Yves Thibaudet because he was surprised by being asked to do this encore as well when Marin Alsop suggested James P. Johnson's Victory Stride.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet: It's a great beat. She sent me an MP4 or whatever. I was like, yes. I was just jumping up and down in my house in Los Angeles. I said, "Yes, let's do it." She sent me all kinds of scores and parts we can organize and change. I think it's just going to break the house down. People will just love it. It's like being in the club in the '20s. What I love is that everybody is-- Not everybody, but at some time, the trumpets are standing up, the cellos are standing up, the violin is standing up. It's a party piece. We're just going to have some fun.

Jeff Spurgeon: A party piece, it was indeed Jean-Yves Thibaudet, talking about that. Clive, we have a couple of members of the orchestra now in front of us here as intermission begins at this concert. We welcome to the microphones. Let's see who we have here. Violinist, Ana Isabella España.

Ana Isabella España: Hi.

Jeff Spurgeon: Hi. Where are you from, Ana?

Ana Isabella España: I'm from here, New York City, Manhattan.

Jeff Spurgeon: In Manhattan?

Ana Isabella España: Yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: Also with us is a percussionist. What's your name, sir?

Ahn Ho: My name is Ahn Ho.

Jeff Spurgeon: Where are you from?

Ana Isabella España: I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

Jeff Spurgeon: From Atlanta. We have Atlanta and New York represented here. You've probably been to Carnegie Hall a couple of times, Ana.

Ana Isabella España: Yes, I have.

Jeff Spurgeon: Tell me, Ahn, have you been here before?

Ahn Ho: Yes, I went last year with NYO.

Jeff Spurgeon: You've been in NYO?

Ahn Ho: Yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: You're all veterans at this stuff. What's it like to play in the orchestra this year?

Ahn Ho: I think to play in the orchestra this year is life-changing as always. Everyone is so different coming from across America. It really brings a mix of culture into the orchestra, and it's fresh every year.

Ana Isabella España: Yes. I've never been in NYO before, but I've always, always wanted to do it. To be here and for World Orchestra Week to be happening, it just feels so special. I feel like I picked the right year. It was so much fun [laughs] but I'm having a great time.

Jeff Spurgeon: How has this worked? You did your auditions, and then what, 10 days ago, two weeks ago, you came to Purchase?

Ana Isabella España: Yes, it's been about two weeks now. We submitted our applications online, but we've been waiting to come here for a few months now.

Jeff Spurgeon: What's been the experience of it, Purchase? You guys all moved into the dorms up there, right?

Ana Isabella España: Yes, we moved into the dorms. It was great. It was comfortable.

Ahn Ho: Yes, it was really comfortable. Good AC. Right.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: Important in a humid week in New York City, for sure. Ahn, how is this year different from last year when you were in NYO?

Ahn Ho: This year feels different, again, because of the different musicians coming across. I think NYO likes to take different players every year. They try to change it up and really collect people from all across the United States. I actually have someone from Costa Rica in the percussion section. That's a completely different style of playing, the completely different sound, and just a way of thinking about music that really makes it fresh.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's wonderful. Ana, then tell us about some of your violin colleagues. Who have you been meeting and talking with?

Ana Isabella España: Oh, my goodness. The interesting thing is from New York, we have an orchestra here, and I have so many friends that are from New York and doing this orchestra, and to play with them here and travel with them, too, it's so inspiring and fun and cool.

Jeff Spurgeon: You're ready to go off after tonight's concert. You go back, and then you're getting ready to go on tour.

Ana Isabella España: Tomorrow.

Ahn Ho: Tomorrow. That's right.

Jeff Spurgeon: Where are you going?

Ana Isabella España: We're going to South America. We're going to three countries: Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Jeff Spurgeon: Right. Ana, do you have your laundry done for this day?

Ana Isabella España: I just did it this morning, actually. Woke up at 7:00 AM.

Jeff Spurgeon: Ahn, are you going to be lined up at the washing machines tonight?

Ahn Ho: Yes. Mine is still in the dryer for nine hours now. Yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughter] Well, these are the lives of traveling musicians. I tell you what, we're going to let you both rest up a little bit and get ready for that great big Scheherazade in the second half of the program. Thank you so much, Ahn Ho, who is from Atlanta, and Ana Isabella España, from here in New York City for talking with us during the intermission. Thank you so much.

Ana Isabella España: Thank you so much.

Ahn Ho: Thank you.

Jeff Spurgeon: Clive, it's got to give you great satisfaction to be talking and seeing these young people having these reactions to this enterprise.

Clive Gillinson: Well, it just gives you a glimpse of what this means to people's lives, and it's utterly transformational. They will never be the same again. Music will have to be part of their life because they'll have been so inspired by this. It's wonderful to see.

Jeff Spurgeon: Now, speaking of inspiration, we're going to play you a little bit of some audio from an event that happened earlier today here in New York City at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Let's hear the music, and then Clive will tell us what happened today.

[MUSIC - Alberto Ginastera: Estancia]

Jeff Spurgeon: That's some of Alberto Ginastera's Estancia. That performance was not open to the public today, but it happened at the Javits Center, and it involved how many kids?

Clive Gillinson: Only 700.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: An orchestra of 700 players. It was everybody who's involved in World Orchestra Week.

Clive Gillinson: That's right. The project itself is in wonderful insanity, but this was our greatest moment of wonderful insanity this morning but in point of fact, Gustavo Dudamel conducted, and it really sounded like a single orchestra with the 700 musicians there in the Javits Center. It was spectacular. It was also all about how everybody engages. It's across every area of life, five continents, and they were all one person. It's as if they're all sharing a single love.

Jeff Spurgeon: Just an amazing thing. You did have some invited guests there, even though it wasn't an event opened to the public enough just to manage the 700 players but you did invite some of the people who supported your work in the World Orchestra Week Festival. I wondered if you'd like to acknowledge a few of those people because this enterprise has been a great big effort.

Clive Gillinson: Well, I think one of the things to say is the orchestras that have come over, the five orchestras that have come over, have been extraordinary. It's a vast amount of work for every single one of them but I think worth referencing for two people, and that is Bongani Tembe, who I've known for over 20 years. He's been a friend, and he put together what was originally a South African Youth Orchestra but I spoke to him and said, "Is there any way you can make it a Pan-African Youth Orchestra?" so it really represents Africa. He said, "That has been the dream of my life so I will do it because of Carnegie Hall and because of this event." He did that.

In addition, we have a close relationship with the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and they put their youth orchestra together specifically for this festival as well. Two of the orchestras only exist because this festival is taking place.

Jeff Spurgeon: You brought young people again together from so many different cultures in so many different places to make this event happen. It's a singular event. You've really created a really special moment in Carnegie Hall's storied history. As we said, the kids are going on tour, and that also is an enormous enterprise. How do you arrange the chaperones and all of the people? Are these Carnegie Hall folks? How do you arrange the staff to make all this happen?

Clive Gillinson: Well, our own staff oversee and go on the trips, but we have to bring in people, specifically, because it's a huge thing to manage. We've got over 100 people in the Youth Orchestra going to South America. At the same time, our National Youth Jazz Orchestra is in South Africa right now with another group of people managing that. Then, NYO2 goes to Dallas or has gone to Dallas. They're really traveling the world as youth ambassadors for their country, which, again, is such an important part of how they themselves develop and how they see themselves because they're really able to make a contribution to America, to their country, and feel really good about that, too.

Jeff Spurgeon: The enterprise of Carnegie Hall in its National Youth Orchestras and this World Orchestra Week, as you hear, is about a great deal more than music. Well, Clive, thank you so much again for your time. I know you have a few other things to do, but we're going to ask you back again at the end of the program, and maybe we'll have a little bit of conversation with Marin Alsop at that time. Thank you so much, Clive.

Clive Gillinson: Jeff, thank you. See you later.

Jeff Spurgeon: All right. Very good. Clive Gillinson, who is the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall and the man behind so much of what has been happening at Carnegie Hall this week, and it's what is happening in places around the world because of this amazing enterprise. In this intermission, we wanted to tell you a little bit about another aspect of this particular orchestra tonight and that is the members of the polyphony ensemble. There are eight musicians here from Israel, four Jewish, four Arab musicians. Marin Alsop is very pleased that they are part of her orchestra at this performance too.

[silence]

Marin Alsop: I think this entire project, the philosophy behind it is about the hope for the future. I think through music we can create these kinds of connections that are difficult to find and if we can get to young people and really connect them to each other then I think there's hope for the future. I think it's especially important to involve young people from communities that are struggling at the moment and of course, those communities change over the years, but sadly there are always many of those communities. I think having young musicians from those areas, it can really impact, I think, the cultural experience for the country.

Jeff Spurgeon: Once again, this concert and this World Orchestra Week are about bringing young people together from so many places in the world to make music, to make relationships, and to help in some modest way but who knows what the consequences will be in some modest way to help build a better future? We wanted to share with you a little bit of the music that we heard earlier in this World Orchestra Week, and so we're going to share with you now a bit of the performance by the National Children's Symphony of Venezuela.

First of all, some music from NY02, which is the 14 to 17-year-old ensemble, playing some of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story composition of Leonard Bernstein, conducted by Teddy Abrams.

[MUSIC - Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story]

Jeff Spurgeon: A portion of the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. Performance by NY02, 14 to 17-year-old musicians, part of Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra enterprise. That performance conducted by Teddy Abrams, who's music director of the Louisville Orchestra, occurred on the first night of World Orchestra Week, a festival of seven concerts involving orchestras from five continents happening at Carnegie Hall. This is Classical New York, WQXR 105.9 FM at HD Newark, 90.3 FM, WQXW Ossining, and WNYC FM HD 2 New York.

Backstage at Carnegie Hall in the intermission of this concert by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, I'm Jeff Spurgeon, and we are looking forward to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade in the second half of the performance, just a couple of minutes away. Carnegie Hall's Clive Gillinson told us that the National Youth Orchestra was inspired in part by his own experience in a youth orchestra in England, and Conductor Marin Alsop says she had a similarly formative experience in this country.

Marin Alsop: I played in the New York Youth Symphony for, I think, one or two seasons because all my friends were playing in it. The thing I remember the most besides all the great comrades I had in it, and we had a lot of laughs and lots of fun, but the conductor was so fantastic, Isaiah Jackson. I just thought the world of him, and I loved his hands, and I was already thinking about becoming a conductor, so I just watched him in admiration at every rehearsal.

Jeff Spurgeon: Now, in the second half of this concert by the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, there's just one work on the program but what a work it is. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade inspired by that collection of Middle Eastern stories known as The Thousand and One Nights. Conductor Marin Alsop chose this work by considering the skills of the members of the NYO.

Marin Alsop: What piece would really showcase these talented young musicians? Scheherazade came to mind immediately. Not only its virtuosic flavor and all of the of course, besides the violin solo, they're incredible solos for the winds, for the horn, and for everybody.

Jeff Spurgeon: Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his symphonic suite in 1888, inspired by the exotic flavors in those stories. There are four movements in the work: The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, the Story of the Kalendar Prince, the Young Prince and the Young Princess, and the Festival at Baghdad and the sea and the ship breaking against a cliff. This work, so colorful, so spectacular, was written in less than a month, and it has had a powerful force on orchestral music ever since.

The stage doors are closed now. The NYO-USA is on stage. They are a wonderful orchestra to look at, dressed in bright red slacks with white shirts or blouses. The gentlemen have black ties, everyone in black coats and their black and white Converse sneakers, so they just look terrific and as you've been hearing, they sound terrific, too. Just backstage, Marin Alsop just walked by, and our concertmaster for the second portion of this NYO concert, Stephan Zhang from Stillwater, Oklahoma, is getting ready to go out on stage and tune this orchestra. Then we are off on a great musical adventure. There he goes now.

[applause]

Concertmaster duties for these performances are split among different members of the orchestra. Stephan from Stillwater gets the job in this second half, and he has some stiff work ahead of him. There are some really wonderful violin solos in Scheherazade as well, so we have that to look forward to. It is a fabulous orchestral suite filled with incredibly special colors. As we've said, there were some other distinctive works written around the same time as Rimsky was working on this piece. You can think of Ravel's version of Scheherazade and some other amazing, colorful work at that time that sort of broke up some of the formality of orchestral music in that time.

Sections of the orchestra maybe were mixed up a little bit in ways they hadn't been before. Some new colors appeared in Rimsky-Korsakov's work, and that's one of the reasons it's been a great favorite. Well, ever since it first appeared in the late 1880s. [applause] You're about to hear it again out on stage, Marin Alsop, conductor of this, the 11th edition of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. All on their feet. Conductor shaking hands with our concertmaster, presenting the orchestra to the audience here at Carnegie Hall. Here we go, NYO-USA and Marin Alsop with Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade from Carnegie Hall Live.

[MUSIC - Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade] [applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: From Carnegie Hall Live, we've heard Rimsky-Korsakov's great Scheherazade inspired by the tales of a Thousand and One Nights. Those tales told by about a hundred young American musicians from across 37 or so of the 50 states, Alaska, Hawaii included, Puerto Rico included in this National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, conducted in its 11th edition this year by Marin Alsop.

Much of the audience here at Carnegie Hall is on its skeets for this ensemble of musicians playing this amazingly virtuoso orchestra work by a group of young people ages 16 to 19. Now Marin Alsop is singling out particular soloists in the orchestra as Jack Sullivan annotator for the program at Carnegie Hall writes, his work is a concerto for orchestra long before bar talk, in which practically everyone gets a difficult solo, and so much acknowledgment for the individuals and the sections who brought this music to light.

When you think of the film scores of the great composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, how much of their sound was influenced by Rimsky-Korsakov's work? It's an amazing contribution he made in the work that he wrote in less than a month without a strict program, but each of the movements has a title. Rimsky-Korsakov was a little bit ambivalent about saying what means what, but we can pretty safely say that the violin solos are indeed Scheherazade.

The young woman who tells tales to save her life for a Thousand and One Nights, and succeeds, and in doing so, inspired this work. The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America goes on tour to South America tomorrow, making stops in a number of cities with Marin Alsop going along and Jean-Yves Thibaudet going along as well. We'll get an encore now.

Marin Alsop: We have a special encore for you written, especially for the occasion by my dear friend, five-time Emmy Award winner, Oscar-nominated composer, Laura Karpman. Wave Laura, where are you? She's up there.

[applause]

This, she wrote for the musicians of the NYO and it's called Swing.

[MUSIC - Laura Karpman: Swing]

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: That was a world premiere. Laura Karpman's Swing. A work written for NYO by Ms. Karpman. An American composer born in Los Angeles, studied with Milton Babbitt at Juilliard in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. In addition to concert music, Laura Karpman also composes for theater, and film, and video games. As you heard Marin Alsop say before the piece was played, Laura Karpman has won five Emmys for her television scores and was nominated for an Oscar for her score to the film American Fiction.

Now, a curtain call for Marin Alsop, and the NYO USA, the 11th edition of this orchestra and enterprise of Carnegie Hall's Wild Music Institute, an institution that produces music education materials that are used not just in New York City, but in schools across the United States. Thus was born, 11 years ago, NYO, the National Youth Orchestra. If you'd like to learn more about how someone you know can become a member of this orchestra or NYO2, or Younger Players, or NYO Jazz, all the information on auditions, and how the program works is available at carnegiehall.org.

[applause]

An amazing concert by this American ensemble of 16 to 19-year-olds. Stunning looking on stage in their red slacks and black jackets, white shirts, black neckties. They make a wonderful appearance as you hear, a wonderful sound in this fifth concert of Carnegie Hall's World Orchestra Week, bringing to New York City 700 young musicians from around the globe, five continents, Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Europe, all in New York City.

Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon, joined once again by Carnegie's executive and artistic director, Clive Gillinson. What a performance those young people gave, Clive.

Clive Gillinson: Well, the Scheherazade is a piece even professional orchestras can struggle with because there's so many great solo lines. The violinist did unbelievably well. It's like a violin concerto, the cellist beautifully, and all the wind playing. Fantastic.

Jeff Spurgeon: Really amazing solos from this ensemble of young people. We heard that Marin Alsop said that this is one of the best NYO crafts that she has been acquainted with. I don't know if you feel overall the standards of the orchestra have increased year to year, but we know that ensembles around the world are producing, and schools are producing greater and greater players capable of almost anything, seems to be evident in this youth ensemble too.

Clive Gillinson: Absolutely true. This was as good as most professional orchestras in the world could play. It's true--

Jeff Spurgeon: They haven't been together as long as a professional orchestra.

Clive Gillinson: They have not. [laughter] 10 days. It all happens within that time.

Jeff Spurgeon: It's just amazing. We should acknowledge too the team of professionals who help prepare the orchestra. Marin Alsop said in our conversation with you that when she came here, they were basically ready to go, she didn't have to do a lot of building. You have a big faculty that supports NYO.

Clive Gillinson: We do. Some of the greatest principal players in the country, they're all passionately committed to this. They all come and coach each of the sections. We also have an assistant conductor who works with them, built it up so that it's ready for Marin or whoever the conductor is when they arrive. It's very important.

Jeff Spurgeon: Another part of the enormous enterprise that NYO is. Joining us at the microphone now is Marin Alsop. Congratulations on this performance. You look like you had a very good time out there.

Marin Alsop: Thank you. Yes. I always have a good time, but I had an especially good time tonight.

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs] Tell us about preparing an orchestra that hasn't been together for very long. You said that they were well put together, but still, in a way, it's a brand-new orchestra.

Marin Alsop: Yes. I think that's the hardest thing is to try to find a sound role for each of the composers, each of the compositions, and try to create some kind of atmosphere that feels unified. That's what we were going for. I think we got pretty close, and they have so much enthusiasm and so much passion and energy that sometimes you just have to manage it a little bit.

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs] The horses can pull you along a little faster.

Marin Alsop: Yes, a little bit.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: -once in a while. Tell us about the encores that you found because the James P. Johnson encore, you had some role in bringing that music back into the world.

Marin Alsop: Actually, the James P. Johnson piece was premiered once at Carnegie Hall in the early 1940s. Then the music was lost. It took me about six years to find the music and restore it all. He has a fantastic symphony called Harlem Symphony and some really terrific tone poems. Clearly, he was a composer who was longing to write for symphony orchestra, but of course, being a Black composer in the 1920s, 1930s, he was really relegated toward the popular music world. He wrote up the hit, The Charleston, which really became iconic for the 1920s.

Jeff Spurgeon: Right. You did that work when you were with the Concordia Symphony.

Marin Alsop: Yes, right, a long time ago.

Jeff Spurgeon: Another part of your great legacy that you're producing. When you take this orchestra on the road, what's the job as you go from place to place in South America in the next few days?

Marin Alsop: I think besides just trying to keep everybody organized. [chuckles] I think the trick will be to try to adapt quickly to the new halls, to the new environment, to the new climate, to the new-- We're going to South America where it's winter time. It's not super cold but it'll be a different-- they'll have to adjust to that kind of thing and a different hall--

Jeff Spurgeon: After this week in New York, they may be happy to go to winter.

Marin Alsop: Yes, exactly. A different hall every day. In young people, it's hard to tell them to pace yourself. I don't think that's in their vocabulary, but let's see how it is. I'm old enough, I know I got to pace myself.

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs] Clive and Marin, both of you, not all of these young people are going to become professional musicians, though, we heard some performers tonight who certainly will be. What is the value of this work then for those kids?

Marin Alsop: Well, I think first, I just want to say to Clive what a genius idea, what a brilliant concept to bring young people from around the world together to showcase them with their own music from their own cultures. It's almost like a United Nations of young people coming together. I'm sure that was the motivation, and because that is the outcome, which is that people are making friends, crossing boundaries, connecting in new ways, and that's what music is about. It's a gift that they have for a lifetime, they don't have to be professional musicians to enjoy music their whole lives.

Jeff Spurgeon: This is the 11th edition of this orchestra, Clive. I don't know if there's an alumni association of NYO, but I'm sure there is on social media a network of now, young adults with their own families who've been a part of this organization.

Clive Gillinson: Absolutely. Well, you started by mentioning they won't all become professional musicians, but probably only half of them do, and yet, they are all utterly capable of that. It's just that they're so multi-talented. They're going to go into many other professions as well. About half of them will not become professional musicians, even though they could if they chose. They'll go off and do all sorts of other things, but they'll be leaders in their field across America. The same with the youth orchestras they're connecting with from around the world. These are going to be the leaders of the future, both in music and outside music, all connected, all friends, all with so much in common.

Jeff Spurgeon: It's a wonderful enterprise. I thank you both. I know Clive, you have some people to visit and Marin, you probably like some of the orchestra members, have some laundry to do.

Marin Alsop: [laughs] Exactly.

Jeff Spurgeon: Before she runs out. Thanks for spending some time with us in this conversation.

Marin Alsop: Thanks for being here.

Jeff Spurgeon: Thank you so much.

Clive Gillinson: Marin, thank you very much.

Jeff Spurgeon: Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall and the leader of Carnegie Hall's World Orchestra Week and these American orchestras; the NYO and NYO2. We are not done with World Orchestra Week. Our Carnegie Hall broadcasts will continue tomorrow night with an appearance by the European Union Youth Orchestra. They are conducted by Ivan Fischer and the soloist tomorrow night playing a set of variations by Dohnányi for piano and orchestra will be the English pianist is Isata Kanneh-Mason. We'll bring you that broadcast tomorrow night at seven o'clock.

We have to get this right for the FCC. Classical New York is WQXR 105.9 FM and HD Newark, 90.3 FM WQXW, Ossining, and WNYC FM HD 2 New York. Our great thanks to Clive Gillinson and the staff of Carnegie Hall. WQXR's recording engineers are Edward Haber, George Wellington, Duke Marcos, Neal Shaw, and Noriko Okabe. WQXR production team is Eileen Delahunty, Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Laura Boyman, Aimée Buchanan, and Christine Herskovits. I'm Jeff Spurgeon, thanking you so much for listening tonight. We return to you now to the WQXR studios in progress. Some music of Mozart, a Serenade played by the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonia.

[02:22:08] [END OF AUDIO]

 

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