The first statewide classical music performing group for young people takes the stage this weekend. While some Montana cities have youth orchestras this one is the first to include young musicians from around the state and beyond.
Longtime Montana State University Music Professor and current Dean of the Honors College, Isle-Marie Lee, is the founder of the Montana Youth Symphony.
“How did we do this? Well we reached out to every single music teacher in the state of Montana and we asked them to nominate present or past students that they had in their studios,” she said.
After submitting audition recordings, 44 musicians were selected. Most live in Montana and are in high school, college or have become music teachers, while 7 musicians are traveling from out of state back to Montana to perform.
Lee hopes that seeing young people on stage performing will inspire the next generation of Montana musicians.
“We want young people in the audience, young students who just started an orchestral instrument, to say, 'Oh my goodness gracious and then I can one day play in the Montana Youth symphony,’” she said.
Next year the Montana Youth Symphony plans to go statewide. Lee hopes that someday the group will perform internationally where they will have the opportunity to be cultural ambassadors for Montana.
The group’s inaugural concert is at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Bozeman High School auditorium. Tickets can be found online at montanayouthsymphony.org.
Before Sunday’s performance, the youth symphony will travel to Jackson Hole to see the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra perform. The director of that festival, Sir Donald Runnicles, will then come to Bozeman to conduct Montana’s youth symphony on Sunday evening.
