The Boise Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, comprised of talented high school musicians from throughout the Treasure Valley, is a full symphony orchestra providing its members with professional education and performance opportunities. The orchestra rehearses on Thursday evenings from 6:30-9:00 p.m. at the Esther Simplot Performing Arts Academy and performs three symphony concerts per school year. The concerts feature exciting and challenging literature from the standard orchestral repertoire. In addition to working with Yorgos Kouritas, conductor, students receive coaching from principal players of the Boise Philharmonic.
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INTRODUCING YORGOS KOURITAS
Yorgos Kouritas just finished his tenure as the Assistant Conductor of the Symphony Orchestras at Eastman School of Music. He also held the position of Music Director and Conductor of the New Horizons Orchestra and Associate Conductor with the Brighton Symphony. He previously had the position of Cincinnati Symphony Conducting Assistant during the year 2006-07. During this time, he assisted Paavo Jarvi and all the guest conductors of the symphony. He also worked with James Conlon for the duration of the May festival of the Cincinnati Symphony. At the same time, he worked with Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra conducting them in rehearsals and concerts. Before joining CSO, he held the position of Assistant and Cover Conductor for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, which included a production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte.
In the summer of 2010, Yorgos was chosen by Lorin Maazel to work with him as a conducting fellow for five weeks in Castleton festival and he received great reviews. He has been selected two times by Kurt Masur as an active participant for the annual masterclass with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony (April 2009 and November 2010). In May and June 2009 he did an internship with the New York Philharmonic’s Education Department and during his time there he also worked for the Development Department. He has also taken part as an active participant in the Winnipeg Symphony Conducting Symposium and twice in the Richmond Symphony Conducting Workshop.
Mr. Kouritas has worked with various orchestras including Lucca Festival Orchestra, Muncie Symphony, Fingerlakes Symphony, Ossia Ensemble, Rochester Composer’s Sinfonietta and others. He has been the conductor of East Central Indiana Youth Orchestra and at the same time the Ball State Chamber Opera. In Europe, he has had many guest conducting opportunities, including the Pleven, Plovdiv and Bacau Philharmonics. He has also conducted Rochester Philharmonic as part of their Summer Conducting Institute. Born in Greece, he had violin lessons from an early age and went to study with the Russian pedagogue Rimma Sushanskaya in Birmingham Conservatoire, England. He has also studied the violin with Sherry Kloss, Piotr Milewski and Lynn Blakeslee. Later on, he studied conducting with Mark Gibson at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Neil Varon at Eastman School of Music. During his time in Cincinnati, he was the Director of the highly acclaimed production of Stravinsky’s Firebird (1945 version) collaborating with the school ballet. He has participated in masterclasses with some of the most well known conductors and teachers including Lorin Mazel, Kurt Masur, JoAnn Falletta, Alexander Mickelthwate, Gustav Meier, Alexis Hauser, Larry Livingston, Victor Yampolsky, Joseph Flummerfelt and Michael Jinbo at the Pierre Monteux School.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Nancy Smith
Education & Outreach Director
Boise Philharmonic
208.344.7849
nancy@boisephilharmonic.org