Louisville Youth Orchestra
P.O. Box 997

Louisville, Kentucky 40201-0997

(502) 896-1851

e-mail:  info@lyo.org

Webpage: www.lyo.org

History

The 2008-2009 season marks the 50th year of the Louisville Youth Orchestra.  The LYO began in fall of 1958 as an outgrowth of a six-week summer orchestral program sponsored by the Louisville Academy of Music.  With Rubin Sher as conductor, William Sloane as assistant, and the Academy’s President, Robert French, as manager, approximately fifty young musicians began rehearsals at the Academy that September.  By December, the fledgling Academy Youth Orchestra had grown to seventy members drawn from seventeen area schools and had outgrown the Academy’s rehearsal facilities.  On the 30th of that month, the group gave its first public concert in the old Columbia Auditorium.  Two days earlier it had made its community debut playing excerpts from Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf in a taped performance broadcast on WHAS TV.

Variously known as the Academy Youth Orchestra, the County Youth Orchestra, the All-County Youth Orchestra, and the Louisville-Jefferson County Youth Orchestra, it has finally settled on, and restored, its 1960 name of incorporation, the Louisville Youth Orchestra.  Over the years it has also called many places home: the old Academy on York Street, the Shrine Temple, the Columbia (now Spalding) Auditorium, the old Armory (now Louisville Gardens), the Louisville Convention Center and Atherton High School. The LYO now rehearses at the Youth Performing Arts School, the St. Matthews Pavilion, the Oldham County Arts Center, the Bardstown Schools and the Oldham County Schools.

Throughout its history it has known five Music Directors: Rubin Sher from 1958 to 1975, Daniel Spurlock from 1975 to 1994, Jim Bates from 1995 to 2001, Robert Franz from 2001 to 2005 and, currently, Jason Seber.  These conductors have led the orchestra through hundreds of concerts in the community, on tour throughout Kentucky, to the Governor’s mansion and the State Fair on numerous occasions, to Chicago, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Buffalo, Columbus (IN), and even to the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1971. In the summer of 2001 the LYO traveled to Sarasota, Florida as one of only six youth orchestras from around the nation invited to attend the American Symphony Orchestra League’s National Youth Orchestra Festival. 

The orchestra has premiered compositions by Nelson Keyes, Gonzalo Roig, Federico Rojas, David McHugh, Samuel Adler, Peter McHugh, Carol McClure (an alumna of the LYO), Eric Ostling (also an alumnus), Paul Nahay, and others.  This season the LYO will premiere Made in America by Joan Tower.  It has responded to the batons of memorable guest conductors, including Robert Whitney, Karl Haas, Sidney Harth, Jack Herriman, Carlo Mastropaolo, Akira Endo, Uri Segal, Jorge Mester, and Lawrence Leighton Smith.  Guest artists include Paul Kling, Miriam Fried, Daniel Heifitz, Lee Luvisi, Greg Fulkerson (an alumnus of the LYO), Leon Rapier, Marion Gibson, Frank Fuge, Leon Bibb, and Peter McHugh.

Administrative offices are located at the St. Matthews Pavilion, 4121 Shelbyville Road.  Our mailing address is P.O. Box 997, Louisville, KY  40201-0997.  The LYO website can be viewed at www.lyo.org and we can also be reached through e-mail at info@lyo.org.

Membership

The Mission of the Louisville Youth Orchestra is to provide a high-quality musical experience for its members.  The LYO provides a remarkable opportunity to work with guest artists, to perform as part of a symphonic orchestra, and to play before enthusiastic audiences.  There are four separate orchestras and various ensemble groups, each representing a different level of artistic challenge from beginner to pre-professional.

Musicians under 21 years of age are invited to audition for membership.  Members are expected to participate in their school’s instrumental music program and to take private music lessons.  Financial assistance is available for private musical instruction through a scholarship program based on need.

The Louisville Youth Orchestra has an established policy to provide equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from all programs, activities and services without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, or disability.

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