Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Sets 2017-18 Season

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) and its new Music Director, Vinay Parameswaran, today announced details of the 2017-18 season.

The Youth Orchestra, under Mr. Parameswaran's direction, will perform a three-concert series at Severance Hall on December 1, 2017; February 25, 2018 (with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus); and May 5, 2018. Subscription packages are on sale now, with individual tickets available starting on September 18, 2017.

In addition to the performances in Severance Hall, the Youth Orchestra season includes concerts in nearby communities by both the full orchestra and by chamber ensembles comprised of Youth Orchestra members. A Prelude Concert, featuring Youth Orchestra members performing chamber music, begins one hour prior to each Severance Hall concert. The Prelude Concerts will take place in Reinberger Chamber Hall.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's 2017-18 Severance Hall season begins on Friday, December 1, 2017, at 8:00 p.m. with a program featuring selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet suites, Barber's Symphony 1, and Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3.

The Youth Orchestra's second Severance Hall concert of the season takes place on Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus joins the Youth Orchestra in performances of Howard Hanson's Song of Democracy and Dvo?ák's Te Deum. The program opens with Sibelius' Symphony No. 1.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra's third and final concert of its 2017-18 Severance Hall season will be on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at 8:00 p.m. The program includes Beethoven's Overture to Coriolan and a work, to be announced at a later date, spotlighting the winner of the 2018 Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Completing the program is Lutos?awski's Concerto for Orchestra.

The 2017-18 season marks Vinay Parameswaran's first as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra.

"We have a superb group of the region's most talented students for the 2017-18 season. The one hundred musicians of COYO travel from nearly forty communities around the region to Severance Hall every week to learn from Cleveland Orchestra musicians and to delve into some of the greatest works in the symphonic repertoire," said Mr. Parameswaran. "They make a deep commitment to the music and the ensemble. These young musicians are truly an inspiration, and they demonstrate that the future of classical music is in great hands. We have an extraordinary season lined up, and I can't wait for our audiences to see and hear the talented COYO musicians perform at the highest level."

As part of an ongoing commitment to partnering with ideastream to provide greater access to music and culture, WCLV Classical 104.9 FM will present a live broadcast on-air and online of each of the three Youth Orchestra concerts in Severance Hall during the 2017-18 season.

The "Under 18s Free" ticket program is available for all Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra performances. The "Under 18s Free" program offers free tickets (one per regular-priced adult paid admission) to young people ages 7-17. The free tickets for Severance Hall concerts eligible for this program must be obtained through the Severance Hall Ticket Office beginning September 18, 2017. Visit www.clevelandorchestra.com/tickets/under-18s-free-for-families.

"Under 18s Free" is a program for young people, supported by The Cleveland Orchestra's Center for Future Audiences. The Center, created with a lead endowment gift from the Maltz Family Foundation, was established to fund programs to develop new generations of audiences for Cleveland Orchestra concerts in Northeast Ohio. Go to www.clevelandorchestra.com/support-and-volunteers/center-for-future-audiences.

For more information or to order the three-concert package, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or order online at clevelandorchestra.com.

Three-concert subscriptions to the Youth Orchestra's 2017-18 Severance Hall season are currently on sale for $30 per seat, or $60 for a box seat. One "Under 18s Free" subscription is available with each adult subscription purchased (box seat subscriptions are not available in the "Under 18s Free" program).

Beginning September 18, 2017, individual performance tickets will be available for $15 per seat or $25 for a box seat. For more information or to order tickets, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or order online at clevelandorchestra.com. Please note that Severance Restaurant will be open for all Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra concerts; reservations are required. Call 216-231-7373 for reservations, or reserve online at clevelandorchestra.com.

Vinay Parameswaran begins his tenure as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra as well as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in the 2017-18 season. He holds the Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Assistant Conductor Endowed Chair. Mr. Parameswaran comes to Cleveland following three seasons as Associate Conductor of the Nashville Symphony from 2014-17, where he led over 150 performances.

Mr. Parameswaran was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2017. During the 2016-17 season, he made his guest conducting debuts with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Tucson Symphony. He also made an acclaimed subscription debut with the Nashville Symphony conducting works by GabriElla Smith, Grieg, and Prokofiev. Recent engagements have included his debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Eugene Symphony, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

Equally at home conducting opera, Mr. Parameswaran has led acclaimed productions of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore with Curtis Opera Theater. He also assisted on a production of Verdi's Nabucco with Opera Philadelphia.

Mr. Parameswaran is the conductor on the album "Two x Four" featuring the Curtis 20/21 ensemble as well as violinists Jaime Laredo and Jennifer Koh. Along with works by Bach, David Ludwig, and Philip Glass, the recording included Anna Clyne's "Prince of Clouds," which received a 2014 GRAMMY nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. He has participated in conducting masterclasses with David Zinman at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, as well as with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Parameswaran played as a student for six years in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Political Science from Brown University, where he graduated with honors. At Brown, he began his conducting studies with Paul Phillips. He received a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Otto-Werner Mueller as the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is a full symphonic ensemble comprised of approximately 100 young musicians drawn from 37 communities in 9 counties across Northern Ohio. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) provides serious young music students of middle-high school age with a unique pre-professional orchestral training experience.

Founded in 1986 by Jahja Ling (then resident conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra), the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is part of a broad array of Cleveland Orchestra educational programs designed to foster a love of music and a lifetime of participation in the musical arts and to nurture aspiring young musicians. Other programs include the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus and Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus, the Musical Rainbow series for children ages 3 to 6, the PNC Grow Up Great 'Musical Neighborhoods' program in Cleveland preschool classrooms, Cleveland Orchestra Family Concerts for ages 7 and up, Education Concerts for schoolchildren, Learning Through Music classroom programs, and Concert Previews and Music Study Groups for adults. For more information, call the Orchestra's Department of Education and Community Programs at 216-231-7355 or visit www.clevelandorchestra.com/education-and-community/overview.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and by gifts from many other donors from across Northeast Ohio. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation. For more information, go to www.clevelandorchestra.com/about/choruses-and-ensembles/youth-orchestra.

The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus (Daniel Singer, interim director) will embark on its 26th season in 2017-18. Comprised of students in grades 9 through 12, the Youth Chorus helps raise awareness of choral music-making in the schools of Northeastern Ohio and encourages students to continue their choral activities through college and into adulthood. The Youth Chorus regularly collaborates with outstanding musical ensembles, and their 2017-18 season will include several concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, as well as a broad range of collaborative and independent performances throughout Greater Cleveland. The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus is supported by the Edward and Ruth Wilkof Foundation. For more information, visit www.clevelandorchestra.com/Education-and-Community/Youth-Ensembles/Cleveland-Orchestra-Youth-Chorus.

Pictured: The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra performing during the 2015-16 season. Photo by Roger Mastroianni.