Welcome to
GREENVILLE COUNTY YOUTH ORCHESTRA

at the Fine Arts Center

YOUNG ARTIST ORCHESTRA

Dr. Gary A. Robinson, Conductor and Music Director

The Young Artist Orchestra, the most advanced ensemble of the four Greenville County Youth Orchestras, is comprised of the most skilled, talented, and experienced student musicians in the Upstate. It is also the Orchestra-In-Residence at Greenville’s Fine Arts Center. Though most members are high school aged, the YAO will also admit exceptional middle school musicians. Each year the orchestra performs three Young Artist Concerts at the Peace Center’s Dorothy Gunter Theatre.  Repertoire includes standard orchestral masterworks as well as contemporary compositions, and in 2008-2009 will include works by Felix Mendelssohn, Jules Massenet, Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvorak, Franz Josef Haydn, Peter and Illich Tschaikovsky. The YAO will also premier a new composition by Alex Wroten.  The YAO’s additional concerts include the Winter Orchestras Concert (January) and the Spring Orchestras Concert (April).

Students in YAO come from Greenville's public and private high schools, as well as home school settings. YAO is a credit-bearing course of the Fine Arts Center in advanced orchestral performance. Members of YAO receive a full unit of honors-level credit. YAO rehearses at the Fine Arts Center each Tuesday from 6:30 until 9:30. 

THE PHILHARMONIC

Kathleen S. Robinson, Conductor and Music Director

The Philharmonic is an intermediate/advanced symphony orchestra comprised of middle through high school aged musicians who display considerable talent, training, and ability.  “The Phil” performs three concerts each year: the November Middle School Orchestra Festival, the January Winter Orchestras Concert and the April Spring Orchestras Concert at Carolina.  In February of 2009 The Philharmonic will perform as a featured orchestra at the American String Teachers Association convention held in Atlanta, Georgia. The orchestra’s repertoire consists of orchestral masterworks, transcriptions, and original works composed for student orchestra.

Students in “The Phil” attend Greenville area public and private middle and high schools as well as home school settings. They rehearse each Tuesday at the Fine Arts Center from 4:30 until 6:00.  High school aged members of The Philharmonic receive ½ honors-level credit through the Fine Arts Center.