For over 50 years, the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra has been nurturing Florida's youth, encouraging them to excel as musicians. Now, their life-changing international tour brings them to Shanghai. Support these talented youngsters and enjoy an evening of genre-crossing music!  

Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has served Central Florida for over sixty-two years. In the early 1950s, Rollins College music professor Alphonse Carlo recognized a need for a youth orchestra program in the Orlando area and accordingly organized free Saturday classes for string students in the community.

 

Mr Carlo's ultimate dream of forming a youth orchestra came to fruition when the popularity of his ensemble reached its stride in 1957 and the first public FSYO concert was the stage in November 1959. For the first 20 years of its existence, FSYO was supported by both Rollins College and the Florida Symphony Orchestra.

 

 

Today, FSYO serves nearly three-hundred students and is comprised of seven ensembles: three symphonic orchestras, one string-training orchestra, a chamber orchestra, and two jazz orchestras. Additionally, FSYO organizes two supplementary string programs during the fall and summer months: Sing-Song, String-Along and Stringmania Summer Camp.

 

 

FSYO's program is carefully structured to encourage a student's growth throughout their primary and secondary years. Our full range of ensembles gives each student a place to excel with peers at a similar level, and an opportunity to collaborate with seasoned music professionals on local, national, and international levels. Beyond the regular season, students in FSYO's Touring Orchestra participate in life-changing experiences through annually alternating international & national tours.

 

Hanrich Claassen is a passionate cellist, conductor and educator who believes that a balance between educating and performing music is the key to true artistic enlightenment.

 

 

Mr Claassen obtained his Bachelor of Music in both piano and cello at the University of the Free State in South Africa. He furthered his cello studies at the University of Stellenbosch, where he completed both a Music Honours Degree and his Master's Degree in Chamber Music. Mr Claassen was awarded the Teacher's Licentiate from the University of South Africa with distinction before furthering his cello studies in Portugal in 2003 at the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas.

 

During the course of his studies, Mr Claassen received numerous awards and merit scholarships in South Africa. He is a previous gold medalist of the Free State Music Society Scholarship Competition, as well as the Free State Orchestra Instrument Competition.

 

 

He has also served as a member of the panel for the Orlando Philharmonic's Orchestra of Distinction program. Mr Claassen is honored to partake in the vibrant live music scene in Central Florida as a cellist with the Alterity Chamber Orchestra, as well the newly established Fernwood String Quartet.

 

1. Overture on Three Russian Folk Songs

2. Copland: Letter From Home

3. George Gershwin, Charl Du Plessis: Gala Rhaposody in Blue

 

- Intermission -

 

1. Sam Wu: Poetic rhymes in Tang and Song Dynasties

2. Chabrier: Pastoral Suite

3. Mendelssohn: Symphony of Innovation