This December, the New York String Orchestra Seminar—one of the nation’s first and most influential professional training programs—celebrates 50 years and recognizes the major impact its alumni have had on the music world in the United States and abroad. Renowned for its unique musical philosophy that emphasizes personal expression over a focus on technical mastery and integrates a chamber music approach into orchestral playing, the program was created in 1969 by arts manager Frank Salomon for violinist and conductor Alexander “Sasha” Schneider, who chose Jaime Laredo to succeed him as director.
This year’s 64 New York String Orchestra members (ages 16–23) come from conservatories, colleges, and high schools across the country, as well as a few from abroad. Selected through a highly competitive audition process, the students give up their winter holidays to come to New York City for 10 days of intensive orchestral rehearsals with Mr. Laredo and chamber music sessions with master artists, including current and former members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Orion, and Guarneri string quartets. They join an illustrious group of more than 2,300 program alumni that include some of the nation’s and world’s most acclaimed artists.
Seminar alumnus Yo-Yo Ma (1977) called the seminar “one of the defining moments for me as a teenager,” as it was for soloists such as violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, Kyoko Takezawa, and Shlomo Mintz; conductors who include Peter Oundjian, Joseph Swensen, Douglas Boyd, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Karina Canellakis, Cristian Măcelaru, and Marin Alsop; concertmasters of more than 40 orchestras (including the orchestras of Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, and the Los Angeles, Berlin, and Czech philharmonics); members of such ensembles as the Emerson, Guarneri, Kronos, Dover, Calidore, and Takács string quartets and Brooklyn Rider; and faculty at leading music schools and conservatories. Each new generation of New York String Orchestra Seminar alumni continues to make a vital contribution to music and illuminate lives around the country. To ensure students are selected on the basis of musical ability and not financial means, all participants receive full scholarships. For more information on the program and its commitment to providing a full scholarship to each participating student for the next 50 years, visit newschool.edu/mannes/nysos.
The New York String Orchestra Seminar is a program of The New School’s Mannes School of Music (Richard Kessler, Dean) New School Concerts Department. New School Concerts thanks the conductor, coaches, soloists, audition panelists, and advisors for their invaluable contributions to the project, and the many others whose time, effort, and resources make the seminar possible: the Cleveland Institute of Music, Chicago Symphony Center, Colburn School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and Wellington Hotel. New School Concerts also thanks Michelle Baker, Bart Feller, Valerie Feuer, Ida Kavafian, Richard Kessler, Diane Lesser, Don Liuzzi, Peter Lloyd, Mary Malin, Raymond Mase, Anthony McGill, Frank Morelli, Kurt Muroki, Sharon Robinson, Susan Sawyer, Michael Seabrook, Stephen Shipps, Linda Strommen, Steven Tenenbom, and Hiroko Yajima for their extra efforts on behalf of the project. The program is additionally grateful to the late Isaac Stern for launching the program at Carnegie Hall, and to the Hall’s current administration and staff for their caring presentation of the annual concerts.
