East County Youth Symphony is a 12-year orchestral program providing high quality comprehensive orchestral training to children as young as six years old to high school seniors, and all of this training is tuition-free. All East County Youth Symphony ensembles and orchestras are subdivided into three main divisions: Pre-Orchestra, Intermediate, and Advanced Division. A total of 184 students are currently enrolled and attending their weekly classes and rehearsals. The PRE-ORCHESTRA DIVISION is a six–year program and designed to serve as a “minor league” for the intermediate level ensembles. With very few exceptions, Pre-Orchestra Division students are six to twelve years old and are placed by audition into one of the following ensembles: ZETA STRINGS, EPSILON STRINGS, DELTA STRINGS, GAMMA STRINGS, BETA STRINGS, and ALPHA STRINGS.
The SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA is for musicians ages twelve to fifteen who are interested in studying and performing original symphony orchestra repertoire and who play string, wind, or percussion orchestra instruments. All Symphony Orchestra musicians learn professional discipline, productive practicing techniques, and original (not adopted for easy learning) repertoire. After two years of training in this group, musicians are typically ready to audition for the Advanced Orchestra.
ADVANCED SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA is for high school and college students who consider music as a possible career choice. Advanced Orchestra repertoire is extremely challenging and requires an advanced to pre-professional skill level, professional discipline and the ability to deliver a high quality performance. The concert programs include N. Rimski-Korsakov – “Scheherazade”, L. van Beethoven – Symphonies No. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7, P. Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5, A. Dvorak – Symphonies No. 8 and 9, C. Frank – Symphony in D, S. Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 3, J. Brahms – Symphony No.3, W.A. Mozart – Requiem and other professional level masterpieces.