The Greater Miami Youth Symphony season finale concerts will be held at 3pm and 6pm on Sunday, May 5th, 2013 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center at 10950 SW 211th St Miami, FL 33189. The Young Sousas Band, Young Mozarts Orchestra, Concert/Jazz Band, and Concert Orchestra Orchestra with Concerto Competition Winner Sophia Molina will perform at 3pm, and the String Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra with Concerto Competition winner, Jason Arevalo will perform at 6pm. The price of admission is $11-21 and can be purchased over the phone (786-573-5300) or online at www.smdcac.org.
The annual GMYS concerto competition was held on February 23, 2013 at the Deering Estate at Cutler. Sophia Molina and Jason Arevalo performed the Accolay Violin Concerto and the Lalo Violin Concerto respectively, and will perform them again at the season finale concerts. Sophia Molina is a 10 year old Miami native who started violin at the age of 4 with Professor Andres Trujillo. Sophia has achieved Superior ratings for her performance at “Federation of Music Clubs” and Solo and Ensemble events, and has been an active member of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony since 2007 when she started in Young Mozarts Orchestra. Jason Arevalo has been playing violin since the age of 9. He’s currently a 10th Grade student at New World School of the Arts, and studies privately under Daniel Andai and Rafael Rodriguez. He was a finalist in the Alhambra and New World Symphony Concerto Competitions in 2013 and won the New World School of the Arts Concerto Competition in the 2011-2012 school year. Jason has been a participant in the All-State Orchestras for the past three years. In 2012, he attended the Killington Music Festival for chamber and solo music where he received masterclasses from Joseph Silverstein, The New Orford String Quartet, and the Boston Trio.
The Greater Miami Youth Symphony is preparing to celebrate its 55th anniversary with a trip and performance in Dublin, Ireland in March 2014. To raise funds for the trip, there will be a raffle during intermission at the May 5th concert while the GMYS chamber ensembles perform background music. Raffle prizes include an iPad, 2 tickets to Florida Grand Opera for the season, private sunset flight along the Florida coastline for 2-3 people, and a cello. The Greater Miami Youth Symphony was founded as the All-Miami Youth Symphony by Robert Strassburg in 1958 as a complimentary facet to music education in our community. Since then, GMYS has four other trips recorded in its history- Colombia in 1969, Mexico in 1993, Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2005, and to Italy in 2007.
Today, the Greater Miami Youth Symphony is an independent six-level orchestra program dedicated to training young musicians between 5 and 18 years of age. In addition to the large ensembles, GMYS offers students a chance to participate in chamber music ensembles. One of our most known programs is our Preparatory Division through which we serve over 400 beginning-level musicians with free group instruction and instruments. Conceived as a complementary facet to music instruction in the schools, GMYS has continuously succeeded in presenting high caliber performances to South Florida audiences.
The Greater Miami Youth Symphony is funded in part by the Children’s Trust. The Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County. GMYS is also supported in part by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, and Cultural Arts Council, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, the City of Coral Gables, Citizens Interested in Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
By Bernarda Reyes
