Where every student can reach their full potential!

        Welcome to the Orange County Youth Symphony! Founded in 2009, The Orange County Youth Symphony was established to foster a setting where the most talented young musicians of Orange County and the surrounding area can come together to rehearse and perform the greatest orchestral works with other students who share their love of music.
        The Orchestra performs two concerts a year, one in the winter and one in the spring. There are ten scheduled rehearsals for each concert. Rehearsals and concerts are held at Monroe-Woodbury School District, Central Valley, NY. Membership is by audition. Rehearsals and concerts are held in local schools in Orange County, NY. In its three years of existence, OCYS has performed complete symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, and Dvorak, and many concert pieces by Smetana, Mozart, Dvorak, Copland, Bizet, Grieg, Mendelssohn, Strauss, Rossini and Tchaikovsky.
        As a cultural exchange program, OCYS performed in Beijing, China, in April of 2010, and in Prague, Czech Republic, in February in 2011, and in Seoul and ChangWon city in South Korea 2012.

OCYS and Jan Hanus School of Music, Prague, Czech Republic

 
Orange County Youth Symphony

Performed its Spring Concert with Students

from the Jan Hanus School of Music, Prague, Czech Republic


 
  Last Feburary, at the invitation of  Jan Hanus Music School, Prague, Czech Republic, 38 students of the Orange County Youth Symphony (OCYS) and their music conductors, Mr. Huadong Lu and Mr. Richard Regan, made an unforgettable performance trip to Prague, Czech Republic. During the seven-day trip, the OCYS and Prague students had rehearsals together in the morning for several hours and then went out to explore the city in the afternoon. Every day, the American students enjoyed the Prague architecture, culture and the delicious food, as well as the friendships of the Jan Hanus Music school students and teachers. “It was the best week of my life!” said Emma Rainoff, concert-mistress of OCYS and a senior at Monroe-Woodbury High School.

As a cultural exchange program, the students from the Jan Hanus Music School received a grant from the Czech government and came to New York from June 17 to 26, and to perform with OCYS. On June 18, OCYS students and the Prague students had a rehearsal together in the morning and performed a joint concert in the afternoon in the auditorium at Chester Union Free High School. The concert selections had a big Czech and American flavor, featuring music by Czech (Smetana, and Dvorak) and American (Gershwin, and Bernstein) composers.

Ten or eleven of our OCYS families opened their homes to host the Prague students and teachers for two days. The Bezdíčková family gave a party with tons of delicious food, while the Masood family had a pool party. Everyone who came had a marvelous time!

The Prague students and their teachers stayed in New York City during the final days of their trip to explore American culture.

The collaboration between OCYS and the Jan Hanus School of Music both in Prague, Czech Republic and in Orange County, NY, was a great success and both the American and Czech students had an invaluable learning experience.