Youngstown Symphony Orchestra

The Edward W. Powers Auditorium, part of the DeYor Performing Arts center, will host the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra on Sunday, May 4 for its Senior Recognition Concert. The concert will feature performances from the orchestra, the conductors and the winner of the Senior Concerto Competition.
The Edward W. Powers Auditorium, part of the DeYor Performing Arts center, will host the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra on Sunday, May 4 for its Senior Recognition Concert. The concert will feature performances from the orchestra, the conductors and the winner of the Senior Concerto Competition.

On Sunday, the Edward W. Powers Auditorium, part of the DeYor Performing Arts Center, will be filled with music. The Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra’s Senior Recognition Concert will begin at 4 p.m. and feature performances from both the students and conductors.

Stephen Gage, music professor at Youngstown State University, and Richard Smrek are both conductors of YSYO and will be featured in the upcoming concert. The other special performance of the night is Lily Gelfand, winner of the Senior Concerto Competition and principal cellist of YSYO.

Lily Gelfand, senior at Boardman High School, will play Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei” — a composition for orchestra with a cello solo — with Gage and the orchestra accompanying her.

She’s dedicating the performance to her father, Michael Gelfand, for his love, guidance in her music and patience with her.  Michael Gelfand, cello professor at YSU, has had the opportunity to teach his own daughter the instrument.

“Lily is perhaps one of the most musical, talented and intuitive cellists I have ever had the pleasure to work with,” he said.

This is not her first performance — her repertoire of competitions and accomplishments include being in the Theater Orchestra for the BHS production of CATS, being a soloist for the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, receiving Outstanding Freshman Orchestra Member and being principal cellist of YSYO and BHS’s chamber and symphony orchestras.

Michael Gelfand expressed his excitement for his daughter’s part in this concert. He also commended how much she has improved and how she has become a professional player at such a young age.

“She has a lovely tone and facile fingers which make for a sparkling technique,” he said. “As a teenager, she is already at a very nice, professional level.”

Following the performance of “Kol Nidrei,” the Brass Choir ensemble will play “Tower Music” by Vaclav Nelhybel, conduced by Ryan Ham and Matthew Hayes. The Percussion Quartet will also play, conduced by Hayes. Gage will lead the whole orchestra in playing Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 and Smrek will conduct the orchestra in Rossini’s William Tell Overture.

At the end of the concert, awards for graduating senior members, such as the Garnet A. Klepfer Award and the Harry A. Syal Memorial Scholarship, will be given to students for their outstanding membership.