Empire State Youth Orchestra receives $22K grant

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

The Empire State Youth Chorale and Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Carolos Agreda, performs during the 40th installment of the Melodies of Christmas at Proctors in Schenectady on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019.

SCHENECTADY – The Empire State Youth Orchestra has been awarded a $22,000 grant, which will help support the organization’s free afterschool music program.

The award comes from the Van Norton Family Foundation, and is the foundation’s first ever gift, Van Norton Family Foundation President and Co-founder, Heather Manthey, explained.

“We wanted to do something kind of impactful and meaningful,” Manthey said.

The foundation looked at three areas for considering an organization to support; having to do with promoting the interest of children, having to do with promoting the physical or mental health of the community, and the third is involvement in the arts, Manthey explained.

“That creative outlet that humans have, it needs to be honored, it needs to be cultivated,” Manthey said. “And, if we encourage, especially young people to express themselves in those ways as early as possible, I guess I really believe it’s a lifetime of healthy living both mentally and physically.”

The Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO) will use the funds for part of its CHIME program (Creating Harmony Inspiring Musical Excellence), a free after school program designed to empower youth to develop a strong sense of personal identity and community through ensemble-based music instruction.

“That program we started in 2015 with an idea to expand access to musical study,” ESYO Executive Director Rebecca Calos said. “And, the support you need in music to really succeed, from getting instruments to having a place to practice, and having individualized support.”

The grant will help support CHIME’s Amplify Our Voice initiative, where students work on improvisation in composition. Students between six and 18-years-old work together with a composer to create a musical piece, which they will then be able to perform. Last year students were able to preform the piece they created in May locally, and a small group of students was given the opportunity to go to New York City and perform at Carnegie, Calos explained.

“It was really successful last year, and we wanted to do it annually,” Calos said. “We want to have our kids have a chance to really express themselves through music, and amplify it in the community. So, we named the project Amplify Our Voice.”

This year, the theme students chose for the project is, “Stop Violence and Show Kindness.” Students in the program will be working with composer Adrain Gordan. Calos explained he will begin meeting with students this month virtually, and will be working with them in person in March and April.

“He’s wonderful,” Calos said. “He works specifically with elementary and middle school kids, really helping them to express their emotions and feelings through music. He met with the students this fall through Zoom, and they really hit it off. We’re very excited, we can’t wait to see how the project goes.”

CHIME has about 120 students involved, and ESYO as a whole has about 450 students involved, Calos said.

The CHIME program was started in 2015 in partnership with the Schenectady City School District, Calos explained. To date, ESYO has received a total of $105,000 from regional and national foundations in support of its CHIME program.