The Orchestras Across Borders program pairs outstanding U.S. Conductors (Carlos Botero, Houston Symphony Orchestra; Mariano Vales, Washington D.C. Youth Orchestra) with aspiring young instrumentalists in order to help them reach more advanced levels of performance and teaching. Programs include private lessons and teacher training in American method books as well as the opportunity to play in orchestra and chamber music ensembles, often for the very first time.
Participants are drawn from music schools, universities and conservatories across the Middle East to learn new repertoire ranging from Baroque to popular and contemporary American music—from Bach and Beethoven to Bernstein and Hollywood film sound tracks. The concert programs often include repertoire that is considered standard in the United States but completely unknown to youth in Iraq or Lebanon.
A significant part of the orchestral and chamber music programs are geared toward learning both Baroque music and Contemporary music while supporting young composers, conductors and arrangers in the nations where we work.
These programs are supplemented with music score, method book and instrument donations.
YES Academy Lebanon, 2016. The Festival String Orchestra performs music by Leonard Bernstein under the baton of Reuben Blundell.
YES Academy Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. Festival String Orchestra in rehearsal.
Conductor Mariano Vales leads the Festival String Orchestra in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony. YES Academy Lebanon, 2017.
