Empire State Youth Orchestra

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Empire State Youth Orchestra
Origin	Capital District, New York, United States
Genre(s)	Classical
Occupation(s)	Symphony orchestra
Years active	1979-present
Website	[1]
Members
Music Director Helen Cha-Pyo

The Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) was founded in 1979 by a group of dedicated parents and music educators. Based in Albany, New York, the orchestra is comprised of talented and musically advanced high school students from New York State, western Massachusetts, and southern Vermont. The orchestra is considered one of the premier youth orchestras in the United States, and regularly performs concerts at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center, Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City. To date, the orchestra has undertaken three international tours, traveling to Austria and Hungary in 1989, to Spain in 1994, and most recently to Germany and the Czech Republic in 2000. Helen Cha-Pyo has served as Music Director and Conductor of the orchestra since September 2002. The Youth Orchestra will travel to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic in April 2008.

The ESYO organization consists of two full orchestra (the advanced Youth Orchestra and the intermediate Repertory Orchestra), a Wind Orchestra, a String Ensemble, two Jazz Ensembles, three Percussion Ensembles, along with a City Strings Training Program.

ESYO holds an annual fundraiser at Crossgates Mall. The Youth Orchestra also performs an annual series of holiday concerts at Proctor's Theatre known as the "Melodies of Christmas" which support the Center for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at the Children's Hospital at Albany Medical Center.