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Senior Solo Competition Winner Congratulations to Raylene Lowe, winner of the 2007-2008 Senior Solo Competition! She will be performing "Ballade" by Frank Martin with the Central Illinois Youth Symphony on our April 27 concert. Raylene Rose Lowe began her musical adventures in a 4th grade group recorder class in her hometown, San Diego CA. She enjoyed practicing and performing music so much that her teacher encouraged her to consider the flute. At age eleven, she began private flute lessons at Alan's Music Shop in San Diego. After moving to Normal, IL in 2002, she studied with Illinois State University graduate students. At the recital of one of her teachers, Raylene was inspired to become a professional flutist. Since 2005, Dr. Kimberly Risinger, Illinois State University Professor of Flute, has been her teacher and continual inspiration. Raylene has served as Principal Flutist for CIYS for the past three years. In spring 2007, she performed as Principal Flutist in the Illinois State University Honors Band. In addition, Raylene performs as Principal and Assistant Principal of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Encore Ensemble, and is a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Woodwind Quintet. In 2007, Raylene won first prize both in the Kentucky Flute Festival High School Soloist Competition and Iowa Flute Wonders Competition. For the past two years, she has been a finalist in the Peoria Symphony Guild's Young Artist Competition. Raylene recently won the West Suburban Symphony Concerto Competition, and was a guest soloist with the orchestra in December of 2007. Aside from flute performance, Raylene sings as a soprano in the Bloomington Area Choir for Home Schoolers. Inspired by her teachers' examples, Raylene also enjoys being a flute instructor and passing on her love for music to her students. Raylene is in her last year of high school and has been home-educated since kindergarten. She will pursue a bachelor's degree in flute performance from Illinois State University in the fall of 2008. Raylene plans to seek a doctoral degree in flute performance and pursue a career as a professional solo flutist and university flute professor. When asked what she most enjoys about playing, Ms. Lowe replies: "Plato once said, 'When words fail, music speaks.' I love playing the flute because through music I am able to express my deepest emotions and communicate them to others." Senior Solo Recital Congratulations to all of the students who auditions for the Senior Solo Competition! We had a tremendous amount of talent this year, which made the judges' decision difficult. The following students performed their pieces with their accompanists at the Senior Solo Recital on Saturday, January 5 at Bradley University's Dingeldine Music Center: Heidi Schick, violin; Grace Kelmer, cello; Abby Chien, oboe and Summer Lusk, violin. Emily Coon competed as well, but was unable to perform at the recital. Congratulations to all on your great performances! CIYS Adds More Small Ensembles The Central Illinois Youth Symphony is adding more small ensembles to our organization. This spring, we are starting a second string quartet, a woodwind quintet, a clarinet choir, and a flute choir. These groups add to our existing percussion and brass ensembles. These new smaller ensembles will be making their debut performances on our Friday, April 18 concert at the Bertha Frank Center in Morton. The clarinet and flute choirs are a way that CIYS hopes
to expand our reach to area students, offering a performance opportunity
for local students who are not in our Concert Orchestra or Youth Symphony.
If you are interested in joining these groups, please contact the CIYS
office at 888-218-4650 or ciysmanager@hotmail.com
CIYS PARENT ORGANIZATION The CIYS Parent Organization got off to a great start this fall. The purpose of this group is to inform the parents about what is happening in the orchestras and to support the fund raising efforts of the CIYS board. The Parent Organization has already helped communication between the parents, CIYS staff and board, and will continue to make this a priority. Upcoming meetings are set for the following dates: Jan. 17; Feb. 7; March 6; and April 3. The meetings are held in a basement classroom at the First Mennonite Church. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending if you are interested in helping out the CIYS organization. We still need people with all different types of skills from all orchestras, so don't be shy!
Marjorie and Elmer Szepessy Foundation Camp Scholarship Here is your opportunity to attend the summer music camp of your choice, supported by scholarship money! Each spring, CIYS accepts applications from students who plan to attend a specific camp, whether it is a week-long camp or all summer. Winning students are awarded money, to be paid directly to the camp of their choice. The scholarship committee will present the scholarships at the April concert. We will award more scholarships with higher amounts of money this season than in the past. Scholarship applications must be mailed by April 11,
2008. All students of each orchestra are eligible to apply, with the
following exceptions: Use the following format: We look forward to considering you for a camp scholarship
this summer!
Online Music Management Program Returns Our online management system has returned for this year. It is called Charms Music Office Assistant, and we are continuing to put more and more information into this program. It's website is www.charmsmusic.com. We can manage everything from our library to our budget to our students on it, you can use it as well! Every student (and/or parent) can log in to their very own account. Once you've logged on, you should first check to make sure that we have all of your correct information (addresses, phone numbers, emails, etc.). You can also change your password at that point if you'd like (under student info). You will be able to keep track of your absences, download forms or letters handed out at rehearsals that you may have misplaces, check on your tuition payments, as well as many more things. If you do not have access to the internet, do not panic! This is not a mandatory website that you have to log on to - it's a program used mostly for office purposes that happens to have perks for the students as well (you can also enter your birthday and it will show up on the calendar!). As life seems to move more towards the computer age, we're trying to keep up!
GUIDELINES WHILE AT REHEARSAL LOCATIONS Everyone please remember that we are guests at First Mennonite Church and Bethel Lutheran Church, and Advent Lutheran Church. We need to stay in the designated areas and treat these facilities and others in the church with respect. No food or drink is allowed - only water. Your assistance in this is very important so that we can continue to use these facilities.
Letters from our members...
Attending the Eastern Illinois University band camp was
one of the highlights of my summer. Without a scholarship from CIYS, this
experience would not have been possible. Each day, we had two full band
rehearsals, sectionals, a small ensemble rehearsal, and two classes of
your choice. I chose conducting and advanced theory. In addition, some
evenings, there were concerts by the counselors, staff, and fellow campers.
There were many other activities in the evenings as well, including swimming,
miniature golf, karaoke, and a talent show. I was selected to play in
the honors brass quintet, and I learned so much from that experience.
I also really enjoyed advanced theory because it was challenging, but
still interesting and fun. Our sectionals instructor was a very skilled
musician and really made sectionals interesting. The guest conductor,
Simon Tillier, made band rehearsals a lot of fun. I am so thankful for
the musical experience I gained from this camp. I also made many friendships
and had a lot of fun. I would strongly encourage other CIYS players to
apply for this scholarship next year. Thank you again.
This summer I attended Birch Creek, a 2 week music camp
in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin designed for musicians ages 14-19. Birch Creek
was the first music camp I have gone to where you have to live on campus,
and it was an amazing experience. What I really liked about Birch Creek
was that the teachers play in the orchestra with us. This allows the orchestra
to tackle more challenging repertoire, and it helped me learn the pieces
a lot faster. During our session, we preformed 6 orchestra concerts, accompanied
3 different soloists, and gave the first performance of Mundo by Gustavo
Leone, a composer from Chicago. In addition to working on orchestra repertoire,
I was also in a quartet. I really enjoyed learning the fourth movement
of Beethoven's string quartet op.18 #2. Also, I participated in the annual
Concerto competition, and won first runner up. I was also the first runner
up for the best string award. Overall I felt that the faculty and other
students were friendly and encouraging, which set up an inspiring atmosphere.
I loved spending part of my summer with about 50 other kids who love classical
music, and I recommend it to anyone else looking for an exciting way to
spend their summer.
I attended the Western Illinois University Specialty Camp
for bassoon and Concert Band Camp. During Concert band camp, I learned
the circle of fourths and learned all major scales. Probably my favorite
part of camp was to be able to learn the contra bassoon, I ended up playing
it for Concert Band Camp. It was really fun to play that thing, although
I am not quite sure if I like it better then the regular bassoon though.
I was also able to start making my own bassoon reeds (but sadly the reeds
I ended up making did not play very well.) It was neat to be able to work
with Dr. Huff, the bassoon professor of Western, I really learned a lot
from him, such as vibrato, and double-tonging. Over all these camps were
really fun, and I will probably attend them again next year.
I had a great time at Bands of America. I did concert band
and ended up being first chair clarinet in the top band, but with my section,
it really didn't matter who was first chair or who was last, because we
all really worked hard and enjoyed playing together. My section was just
one of the many talented ones in my band, the Texas band. We were directed
by Dr. Eugene Corporon, who teaches at the University of North Texas.
He was a very knowledgeable director and challenged us by never accepting
less than what was our best. He gave us some pretty great music to play,
too. At the final concert, we played Metroplex by Robert Sheldon, which
was a lot like a new age Rhapsody in Blue; Apollo by Brian Balmages, which
was a soprano saxophone feature accompanied by band that set the destruction
of the first Apollo spacecraft to music; and Five Variants on "Dives and
Lazarus" by Ralph Vaughn Williams, which was just really beautiful. The
whole camp went to a concert each night, as well as showing their newfound
skills to their parents on Saturday morning. The concert I enjoyed the
most was the Tuesday concert, where the brass quintet Synergy and the
Capitol Quartet (a saxophone quartet) performed separately and then joined
together in playing When the Saints Go Marching In as an encore. I just
had a really excellent time at Bands of America, and I would recommend
it to anyone who hasn't experienced what it has to offer yet.
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