I loved every single one of my years at NYS, and will miss everyone!

I was a member of the NYS when it was under the direction of John Master. During that time the symphony did a joint concert with the Boston Youth Symphony - still have the recording! The oboe was my instrument. My parents drove me to Long Island to study with Whitney Tustin. Also, I studied piano with Catherine Master and would walk to the Masters' house from the former NHS. (Cathy Jo and Gigi were darling girls!) Today I live in Stonington Village with my husband Tony, a graduate of Hartt School of Music. We both were Connecticut Public School teachers. While attending Newtown CT Public Schools, our son Tony was a member of the NYS. He played the violin and still does. In Stonington we enjoy sailing, Tony does some composing, and I play the piano every day - remembering the technical lessons taught to me by my mother Julita Weed and Catherine Master. I am happy to have been a graduate of NHS and a member of the NYS.

I was only with NYSO for my senior year in high school, but I continued to play at Brown, with the Wind Ensemble and Marching Band. Now I'm involved with youth symphonies in the Pacific Northwest. My son plays percussion with the Seattle and Bellevue Youth Symphonies. My rewarding experience with Norwalk led me to encourage him to audition here.

coming soon....

Well, I no longer play the bassoon but I will always remember being the lone bassoonist in the Reserve Section and playing the bassoon solo in the Lt. Kije Suite. Since then my music making has turned to choral music. I began singing in church choirs in Houston in 1981 and have been singing ever since. I guess NYS may have helped me to read the bass clef. My checkered career has included working in a library, being a university fund raiser, and graduate study in urban planning and historic preservation. For the last 15 years, I have been an architectural historian with John Milner Associates, Inc. in Philadelphia, and I enjoy my work. My wife Lois Maynard, an elementary school teacher, and I live with our cat and dog in subruban South Jersey,

Oh my gosh! I came across this site accidentally. What a thrill! I want to correct Linda Walton Kirkwood's anecdote. I was playing in a summer string quartet with her and couldn't make rehearsal and asked James to substitute for me. Who knew I was a matchmaker!! And I saw a note from Shem's brother! I have tremendously fond memories of NYS - and all of the community groups I played with through high school. Still playing as an amateur in central New Jersey. Sorry I missed the reunion!

My funniest memory was when my chair fell off the riser in the middle of a concert. Mr. Huwiler just kept conducting, but he pulled off his glasses and mouthed the words, "are you okay?" I remember just holding my instruments up as high as I could, and as long as they were okay, I was okay!! Loved playing with the group, and went on to major in music. I played a year with the 'grownup' Norwalk Symphony (piccolo) after college, played lots of chamber music and taught lots of flute students before settling down to a "real job." After my son was born, I didn't play for almost 10 years, but I now enjoy playing chamber music with friends, and playing in community groups in my area.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Norwalk Youth Symphony!

Ah, yes, all those Saturday mornings. While my friends were sleeping or watching cartoons, my siblings -- John (trumpet), Peter (trombone), and Ellen (oboe) -- and I were rehearsing at the old Norwalk High School. It was a wonderful 9 years. I am now immersed in music on the business side with Jive Records, home to several pop and R&B stars including Usher, Outkast, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake. There is no classical music on our roster; that is left to our sister label Masterworks. Although I have not played the French horn in several years, I enjoy listening to my children play the trumpet and piano.

I am in my 12th season as 3rd horn/associate principal horn of the New Mexico Symphony, based in Albuquerque. I was always very active in music, but it was the stimulating atmosphere of the Norwalk Youth Symphony which pushed me to strive to become a professional musician. I went to Northwestern and after 10 years and dozens of auditions, got a tenured position here. I still love music and playing in orchestra and feel privileged to still be doing it.

I continue to enjoy orchestral playing (Chapel Hill Philharmonia) and also love the annual Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop that draws participants from all over the world (some of you NYS alums might like this too!!). My son (a cellist) also enjoyed youth orchestra, and plays in Boston's Longwood Symphony. I am looking forward to seeing Mr. Huwiler and to thanking him for everything he did for us. The rehearsals did get to be a bit tedious (sometimes it seemed as though the strings were always playing and the winds were always waiting to play), so one week I decided to bring some knitting to rehearsal to make "better" use of the down time. The next week, the entire flute section brought knitting along, and at that point Mr. Huwiler put a stop to it... I always have "music in my head". Sometimes it is distracting, but usually it is enjoyable, and I have the NYS to thank for a life-long engagement in making so many wonderful pieces a part of me.

Saturday morning NYS rehearsals was always my favorite time! After many years working as an electrical engineer, I now combine my interests in science, engineering and music at D'Addario & Company where I design musical strings. I serve on the board of directors of the Violin Society of America (VSA) and I organize a violin acoustics workshop every summer at Oberlin College for violin makers interested in violin acoustics. I have run into many NYS alumni. During a recent trip to Houston, I played string quartets with violinist Mary-Ellen Shea for the first time since our Youth Symphony days! My younger sister Lilly also played violin in the NYS and she now works for Microsoft in Seattle, where my parents recently moved to. My father had served on the NYS board and one of his responsibilities was keeping the membership address list on his work computer. This was long before PCs and I had to type the addresses onto old fashion IBM punch cards!

Music has shaped my life, and the NYS had a profound impact on that. It was my Saturday mornings for 8 years; I played some of the world's greatest classical repertoire there, and it became the foundation for many more orchestral experiences in the ensuing years. I developed tendonitis in my wrists in 1990, and so I had to stop playing altogether for about a decade. Recently, I was able to return to my violin and discover a talent for improvisation and playing from memory. I wouldn't have known how much music I have on the insides of my eyelids and embedded in the marrow of my fingers if I hadn't stopped playing "from the score" for that length of time. I have picked up or returned to several interests since then (watercolors, knitting, earth-based spirituality, writing, teaching, choral singing) which have taken the time slots formerly held by practice, rehearsals, and concerts, but I still bring out my glorious violin every so often, and it plays as richly as ever. The experience helped me realize that whether or not I ever play another note, I will always be a violinist, and the NYS had a major part in makinng me one.

After playing the piano for two years I took up the cello, and after two years of study joined the Norwalk Youth Symphony. I played in the Chamber Orchestra for two years, then went straight into the Principal Orchestra. I loved playing music in a social setting, and in particular the NYS got me into chamber music, where I have focused much of my energies. Currently I am a sophomore at Columbia University and am leaning towards majoring in architecture. I am involved in three chamber music groups at Columbia, and at Juilliard I am taking cello lessons with Darret Adkins and am playing in a string quartet. No matter what I do, I know that I am going to be involved with chamber music, and I am grateful that through the chamber music program of the Norwalk Youth Symphony I was able to discover the joys of small ensemble playing, to help found the Spectrum Quartet with three other members of the NYS, and to play numerous recitals, weddings, etc. in the area. I went on from the Norwalk Youth Symphony to the Pre-College program at Juilliard, and graduated in 2005. At Juilliard I played in the orchestra and in several chamber groups, and made more friends than I can count. I also spent summers at Tanglewood, Meadowmount, and most recently at Kneisel Hall.

I am a senior at the University of Connecticut, and am planning on graduating in May, 2007 with a double major in English and Classics. I have played violin with the university symphony, if not every semester. The band I started here in Storrs, The Reversible Shirts, plays gigs all around the area, and I enjoy playing lead guitar with them. Playing in the Norwalk Youth Symphony gave me a sense of belonging that I really needed at the time, and I remember the numerous friendships I had with my fellow NYS players.

I only remember playing in the NYS for one year, actually only one concert sticks in my mind, but I may be forgetting. I was a sophomore in high school and had never played in an orchestra that big and that good. We played Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, a performance I still remember. What ever happened to the wonderful horn player, then very young, whom I only remember as Marco?

The violin and music in general has been a great source of joy and satisfaction to me throughout life. I remember playing first or second violin with the symphony for a few summers at the old Norwalk High School and recall that the selections were very challenging. Like any child, I didn't realize how precious the symphony and music education was at the time. I went on to graduate from the University of Arizona and took violin, voice, piano and guitar classes as electives. I briefly flirted with performing folk songs in the early seventies, and was an assistant instructor of violin in my daughter's elementary school. Sadly, music and fine arts education is today not offered in many state's public education programs. With the recent arrival of my first granddaughter, Virginia, I am playing again in anticipation of passing on the tradition.

It was during my tenure with NYS that I decided to attend a conservatory and be a professional. I attended New England Conservatory, joined Boston Symphony, formed Empire Brass, played 12 years with Canadian Brass and remember my time with NYS as if it were last week.

I joined the Norwalk Youth Symphony when I was in 2nd grade. I remember how nervous I was when I auditioned in front of Jim Andrews; a moment I would never forget. The Chamber Orchestra was small back then, very small compared to how large it has grown. It was much easier for Mr. Andrews to hear who didn't practice during the week. Then came the Concert Orchestra. We took a trip to play at Lincoln Center in New York City. Remember the wind? Our wire stands and paper music were no match mother nature. It was fun, annoying and comical at the same time. And a trip to the Ives Center. Well that was less dramatic. Thank you Mr. Brooks. Principal Orchestra. Don’t think you can come into rehearsal without practicing and get away with it. Tara knows. It’s her sixth sense. In Principal we were all presented with hard music that took practice more than any other group. But with hard work came great rewards. I had the honor of playing at Carnegie Hall with the Principle Orchestra on two separate occasions; truly an amazing experience. Those are the days you don't forget. Now, NYS has grown to a new level. More musicians than ever are participating. I am proud of how far this organization has come. It is a chunk of my life that I ill never forget, especially the part where I devoted all my Saturday mornings to practice for nearly 11 years. But it was worth it. Many faces have come and gone. But the players, parents and directors should be proud of the NYS and all of its achievements. There is a bright future for this organization. Currently, I am a student at the School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut. I am studying Mechanical Engineering and Economics. I work at Sealed Air Corporation as an engineer in Danbury. I still pick up the violin whenever I have time. And whenever I do it really does bring back memories of NYS. And speaking of time, I have a report due in an hour. See you later NYS.

Saturdays were to live for! Even though the 9 a.m. rehearsal didn't complement my teenage sleep cycle, Saturday mornings invariably brought me the joy of gathering with my musician friends for several hours of inspired musical collaboration. I will never forget the sound of the first downbeat that I expeienced in the Norwalk Youth Symphony. I was chilled by the blend of this most amazing palate of sounds that surrounded me. Never before had I experiened such a sense of awe. I had made a new discovery and I was in love with it. Having pursued professional music studies and a career as a music educator, I love to re-live this thrill of discovering music's magical qualities with my students.