MCYO Concert

This weekend was my first performance with the McHenry County Youth Orchestras in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Crystal Lake is a town on the Northwestern edge of the greater Chicago metro area (see map below). It's really about as far out as the city goes, offering an interesting mix of small-town America and suburbia, located one hour's drive from downtown Chicago.


The group I conduct is one of three orchestras in the MCYO organization which is part of the McHenry County Music Center. My job title, in addition to conducting the Symphony Orchestra, is that of "Music Director" so I get to oversee the artistic development of the organization and coordinate my programming with the other conductors. The youth orchestra program finished it's 31st season with this weekend's concert and just received the "Youth Orchestra of the Year" award from the Illinois Council of Orchestras. So, as I step into my new role I have some big shoes to fill.

I was called on to finish out the season with the orchestra after I interviewed and auditioned for the job a little over a month ago. I didn't really know what to expect when I went in for my first official rehearsal and I was a bit nervous because I only had three rehearsals with the group before the concert. Luckily things came together very well and I found the students to be very responsive, talented, and responsible. As a result of their hard work over the past few weeks the concert came off without a hitch.

The concert was held at the Raue Center for the Arts in downtown Crystal Lake. For a town of only 30,000 people this venue was absolutely delightful, and for me somewhat surprising - especially since I didn't quite know what to expect. It's an old vaudeville-style movie house that has been updated and refurbished with state of the art equipment and an outstanding staff/crew. I was especially excited since I even got my own dressing room:

The orchestras were great and the audience was fantastic (and very responsive). They seemed to genuinely appreciate the students and the performance. We got a standing ovation at the end of our final piece (the final two movements from the Mussorgsky/Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition).


After the concert Kaia and I went out to dinner with the members of the Board of Trustees for the MCYO at a restaurant in downtown Crystal Lake called "Duke's" which features all locally grown foods (awesome!) and a great beer selection. When the meal was over we drove one hour south to Oswego and crashed at Kaia's aunt and uncle's house so we didn't have to drive all the way back to Champaign in the middle of the night. Don't worry, we called ahead to make sure it was okay.

Next up with the orchestra is the trip to Italy in June!