WSYO News

HOME /

WSYO News

Oct 30, 2022


1.   Rehearsal Location 

From this week through to our fall concert, our rehearsals will be at VINCENT MASSEY SECONDARY SCHOOL, in the music room.  Vincent Massey is located at 1800 Liberty St. in South Windsor.  There is plenty of parking, and a laneway that extends from Norfolk to Liberty so you can drive through to drop off your child.  We will be at the side door to welcome your child into the building and help them find the music room.  

2. Rehearsal Times 

WSJYO 1pm-2:15pm. Please do your best to arrive early so you can unpack, your instrument can be tuned and you’re ready to play at 1pm.   

WSYO 2:30-5:15pm 

3. What do you need to bring to rehearsal?

Your instrument

Your music

A pencil

You don’t need a stand at Massey.  Masks continue to be encouraged, but optional for all our Youth Orchestra musicians.

4. Rehearsal Notes from Francisco

WSJYO

Here’s a very good version of Cielito Lindo. Pedro Infante was a very famous actor and singer from Mexico, he set a big precedent on how many traditional songs are sung today in Mexico, I’m sure you’ll find it very interesting! I’ll tell you more about it on our next rehearsal.

WSYO

Please make sure to read through all the notes from our new pieces. We read through both Tchaikovsky pieces on our last rehearsal so that you had a sense of the tempo, but I would recommend you to listen to the actual orchestral version of the Symphony and the original version of the Song of the Reaper on piano or the piano and orchestra version.

Here are some recommendations:

  • As for the Brahms, please read through the part and find the trickier spots and practice them a bit more so that we can read it together next Sunday.

I’m sure you’ll find this music very beautiful. Don’t be afraid to go listen to the whole symphonies, that will make you understand better the concept of the slow movement within the whole composition.

5. WSJYO Auditions

Maestro Francisco is excited to hear you play tomorrow!  Junior Youth musicians will audition with one scale and one piece of their choosing tomorrow during rehearsal! Auditions are not done in front of the rest of the students, they are done in a separate room during regular rehearsal.  I’ll be there to bring each student to the audition room down the hall, and then they’ll go back to rehearsal.  Please remember that these are auditions for our concert seating only, not to determine whether you’ll be accepted into WSJYO.  These are for balancing our overall sound so that the Violin I and Violin II parts are well distributed, and so that Maestro Francisco can get to know each musician a little bit better.  If you have questions about this, please ask!

6. Fall Concert!

Our Fall concert this year will be on November 27 at the Capitol Theatre.

We will have a dress rehearsal on the Pentastar Stage in the afternoon of the 27th  at our regular rehearsal time so that all of our musicians are comfortable on the stage.  I’ve also posted rehearsal and concert info on our portal here.

Here is the schedule for November 27:

1pm WSJYO Rehearsal

2:30 WSYO Rehearsal

6pm musician arrival for our concert

7pm concert

Tickets are NOW ON SALE!  Ticket prices are $15 adults and $5 youth under 14 and you can find the link to purchase HERE!

7. Special pricing for WSO Concerts

We were glad that so many of you have been coming to our WSO concerts!  In appreciation of you, we have decided to make the discount available for ALL Pops and Masterworks concerts this season! Simply enter the coupon code 75years at checkout, and your seats will be $15 each.  We hope you continue to enjoy all of the WSO concerts this year!  We’re always so happy to see you there!

Cabaret Night with Randy Roberts

Randy Roberts is very popular for his drag queen inspired performances with orchestras across North America, Puerto Rico and Spain!  He has a very popular live show in Florida, and appeared on “America’s Got Talent”.  He has amazing impersonations of Cher, Carol Channing and more and he’ll be here performing with the WSO on Nov 12!  So fun!

World Connections through Music

Our next Masterworks concert features a world premiere of music by Farhad Poupel, and Iranian composer who writes absolutely beautiful music.  Maestro Robert Franz had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Poupel and pianist Jeffrey Biegel about our concert and the world premiere.  You can watch the interview on our YouTube channel here, and you can watch Maestro Franz’s preconcert talk here, and please join us for the concert on Nov 19!  You can find tickets here, and don’t forget your special coupon code!

8.   Our online portal 

We have a portal for WSJYO and WSYO on our website.  You can get there by going to w. windsorsymphony.com, then click Learn and Connect, click Youth Orchestra, and go to WSYO Student Portal.  Click here for a quick link to the portal.  The password is WSYOrocks!, and there you can find our music so that you can print copies if you lose yours, and our weekly newsletter.