Youth Symphony at Crossroads

The Youth Symphony performed to a packed house at Crossroads this spring!

Pictures courtesy of BYSO Board Member and Parent, Jeff Keith.

Guest Blogger: Kyoko Taguchi, BYSO Board Member

This week we are excited to have Kyoko Taguchi, from the BYSO Board of Directors, join us with a guest blog entry!

We asked Kyoko to share with us her thoughts on music from an international perspective.

The Power of Music: Kyoko & Takumi's Experience:

"My son (8 yrs. old) is a happy third grader. He loves math, recess, and playing the violin in the BYSO Premiere Orchestra. Last Sunday he played the violin at our church to raise funds to help prepare dinner for the organization, Tent City. He prepared a sign asking for donation with his Crayola crayons, and played some Bach, Vivaldi, Veracini, and Kreisler for about an hour. That afternoon he raised $195.00, which was more than enough to prepare two dinners for the 95 people of Tent City. He said he was "extremely happy and thankful."

We moved from Tokyo in March 2006. My son was five years old then and didn’t know any English. When his “captain kid” week came in school, he was asked to give a presentation about himself. The only thing he could do was to play Handel’s “Bourree” with his tiny 1/8 violin in front of his kindergarten class. Since then, music has been a very special friend for him. When he turned 6, he wanted to join BYSO and make more friends through music -- he was in ESL then. He couldn’t even sight-read yet, and for the first three months he cried every night being unable to connect what he heard and what he saw. However, to my surrise, he never wanted to quit. Probably, he instinctively knew that music was helping him keep his self-esteem through the major transition between two countries, cultures, and languages. He now corrects my “funny English” and reads the sheet music without my help. Honestly it’s not too easy for me as a working mom to take him to rehearsals every Mondays by 6:30pm, but his happy bright face after rehearsals tells me how precious the experience he is having at BYSO is, and makes me so grateful to the wonderful people who make BYSO such an extraordinary place."

Thank you to Kyoko and Takumi, for sharing what an important role music plays in your lives. We are grateful to have Takumi in Premiere and Kyoko on the Board!

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How does music impact you? Got a story to share? Email your blog ideas to marketing@byso.org

BYSO back at Bellevue Square!

It's been many years, but this holiday season BYSO returned to perform at Bellevue Square for the holiday season. With Santa's reindeer "Flying" above our Premiere Orchestra it was quite a festive performance. Led by conductor, Barney Blough, the group performed a number of seasonal pieces from around the globe. Smaller quartets also performed selections for this concert.

The Bellevue Square center court was packed with parents, friends, and shoppers and it was a very festive way to kick off the holiday season!

Students perform at MadArt

Here are some amazing photos from the musical performance at MadArt in Capitol Hill this past September from Wanda Holt Photography:

MadArt, Mad Music

Students in the Sapor Dei String Quartet (some are members of BYSO) played to an enthralled audience of 200+ at the MadArt Opening Night event in Madison Park earlier this month. The event was a mingling sort of evening, but many guests pulled up a chair to listen to the beautiful performance from these student musicians. They received many compliments that evening, and seemed to be just as popular as the Art on display!