• Provide exposure to diverse orchestral styles under the guidance of musical professionals
• Identify and educate motivated students regardless of financial circumstance
• Foster a sense of achievement and self-esteem through a developmental approach
• Promote self-discipline and teamwork through respect for artistic standards

The Norwalk Youth Symphony has always been characterized by gifted musicians, dedicated conductors, challenging music and exciting and exacting performances.

The Norwalk Youth Symphony is a non-profit organization under the provisions of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

THE ORCHESTRAS

• The Principal Orchestra performs advanced repertoire.
• The Concert Orchestra is a full orchestra performing on an intermediate level.
• The Philharmonia serves as a first experience in playing in a full orchestra for many of our young musicians and helps them to transition to the more demanding repertoire of the two upper orchestras.
• The Prelude, a string orchestra, generally serves as an entry level for most musicians.

THE CHAMBER MUSIC PROGRAM
Since 1988, Norwalk Youth Symphony has recognized the importance of chamber music by offering its members the opportunity to play in small groups.

The program is divided into two semesters, with recitals marking the end of each term. Each ensemble meets with professional chamber musicians for eleven coaching sessions during the semester. Students are required to sign up for the full year. The program currently consists of mixed groups of strings with winds and/or piano, a flute ensemble and a brass ensemble.

Enrichment activities include master classes with such people as John Dexter and David Shifrin of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; field trips have included a visit to hear the Tokyo String Quartet at SUNY Purchase with a private Q&A session following the concert for our students.

Members of the NYS Chamber Music program have performed for a number of civic events, such as the Norwalk United Way kickoff and the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce annual dinner.

Participation in the Chamber Music Program is not limited to members of the NYS orchestras, but is open to all music students based on an initial audition.

Executive Director:
Sara Watkins is the executive director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony.

Coaches:
All of the sections of the NYS orchestras are coached on a regular basis by professional musicians.

Conductors:
Tara Simoncic is entering her sixth season as conductor of the Principal Orchestra. She has guest conducted the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, the Kingsborough Orchestra, the Northshore Symphony and the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra and has been a guest lecturer with the Greenwich Symphony. Ms. Simoncic is also on the conducting staff of the C. W. Post Music Festival, and has served as the conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has trained extensively in Europe, participating in Master Classes with the Canford Summer School of Music (England), Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra (Czech Republic) and the Adygeya Republic National Symphony Orchestra (Russian Republic). She holds a Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance from The New England Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University and a professional studies diploma from Manhattan School of Music.

Richard Brooks  was appointed conductor of the Norwalk Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra in 1998 and has been conducting professionally since 1981. His guest conducting credits include the Fairfield County String Festival, Charles Ives Center for the Arts and several regional school festival orchestras in New York. He has served since 1987 as music director and conductor of the Cheshire Symphony Orchestra and held the same position with the Danbury Community Orchestra for 20 years. Mr. Brooks is on the affiliated music faculty of The Gunnery in Washington and the Wooster School in Danbury, teaches violin and viola privately and is a freelance classical and jazz violinist. He is also co-director of the Western Connecticut State University Summer String Institute, an intensive, week-long workshop for pre-college string students. He holds a degree in violin performance from Western Connecticut State University and has performed at many venues in the Northeast, including Lincoln Center and the New Haven Jazz Festival. Music from his 1998 CD album Violin Electric on the J-Bird Records label has been heard on National Public Radio's Echoes program.

Todd Doan  is the conductor of Prelude and Interlude Orchestras for the 2006-07 season. In addition to NYS, he conducts the Carnegie Hill Orchestra of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and teaches instrumental music with the Newark (NJ) Public Schools. Mr. Doan's conducting experience with youth orchestras includes the New Jersey Youth Symphony and Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra. Professionally, he has participated in the Donald Thulean Conducting Workshop with the American Symphony Orchestra League, was a guest conductor for the Central Jersey Intermediate Region II Orchestra and is a faculty member with the Arts and Education Summer Arts Academy. As an educator, he was the Director of Orchestral Activities at Cranford Public Schools (NJ) and at Winter Park High School (FL). He also served as Manager of Education and Community Programs for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and has performance concentrations on both oboe and viola.

Paul Tooker is director of the Brass Ensemble. He is Band Director at Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York. Prior to teaching in Westchester County, Dr. Tooker served as Performing and Visual Arts Coordinator at Curtis High School in Staten Island, New York. In addition to public school teaching, he was the Band Director at Wagner College, served as a Teaching Assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University and was an Adjunct Professor with Mercy College and The College of Staten Island. He has conducted hundreds of middle school, high school and college concert bands, jazz bands and brass ensembles over a 25-year career. He is the former down-state zone representative for the New York State Chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education and the former Jazz Coordinator for the Westchester County School Music Association. Dr. Tooker held the principal trombone position with the Staten Island Symphony for ten years, is founder of the Staten Island Trombone Choir and continues to perform as a freelance trombonist. He holds a Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University and earned both a Bachelor of Music degree in performance and a Master of Music degree in music education from the Manhattan School of Music.

Erica Messina  has over 20 years experience as a music educator. She earned her Master’s degree in Music Education from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York. She taught middle school orchestra in the New York City Public Schools as well as working with learning disabled students. She developed a very successful "Suzuki-like" group violin program in a school that did not offer any other instrumental music. While living in New York, she played in various musical groups around the city including the Brooklyn Camerata Chamber Orchestra where she served as principal violist for 3 years. Ms. Messina and her family moved to Connecticut in 1997. She has been a member of the music faculty in the Westport Public Schools since 1998. She has experience teaching on the elementary, middle and high school levels, as well as working with string and full orchestra ensembles. In addition to teaching in school, Ms. Messina teaches violin and viola privately. She plays viola with the New Haven Civic Orchestra and the American Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Messina’s 3 children—all string players—have played with the NYS.

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.
    
2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a bookbag with everything that will be needed for the day.
    
3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.
    
4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT.
    
5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a " me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.
    
6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.
    
7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.
    
8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.
    
9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.
    
10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are also looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create, as described above.
     
11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.
     
12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.