Youngstown Symphony Orchestra hits the road for Young People’s Concert

By Jordyn Grzelewski | March 23, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

POLAND

As the opening notes sounded, the excited chatter died down.

Hundreds of kids looked in wonder at the stage, where a couple dozen musicians held their instruments.

The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra played Wednesday in Poland Seminary High School’s auditorium for Poland’s approximately 650 K-4th-grade students. The visit was part of the symphony’s Young People’s Concert program, which more than 3,600 students in the Mahoning Valley will see this year.

Patricia Syak, president/CEO of the Youngstown Symphony, said the challenges school districts experience in getting students to a performance prompted the symphony to hit the road.

“Many of the urban and rural schools were not able to take time away from school classroom activities to come to the venue,” she said. “So several years ago, we decided we would take the musicians to the schools because the schools couldn’t come to the hall.”

This week, the symphony visited Southington, Poland and South Range schools. Earlier this year, the group performed in Sebring and West Branch schools. Today, another Young People’s Concert will take place in downtown Youngstown at the Edward W. Powers Auditorium.

Each year, the Young People’s Concert has a theme. This year, the theme was immigration.

Randall Fleischer, YSO music director, and Heidi Joyce, who narrates the show, incorporated information about the discovery of coal in the Youngstown area, Irish and Italian immigration to the United States and to the Mahoning Valley, and more.

“Today’s concert is about the music these cultures brought with them,” Fleischer told students.

Joyce asked students where their ancestors had come from, eliciting responses ranging from Greece to Florida.

The program aims to instill in students an appreciation for music at an early age.

“I think it does create something of an excitement for them, and an awareness that there is a symphony and an orchestra,” said Syak.

“They are exposed to professional, experienced musicians,” said Dobbins Elementary Principal Michael Daley. “But most importantly, you will see the look on their faces as the concert begins.

“And their reaction really says it all.”