In Monday’s (5/10) KTSM (TX), Dave Burge writes, “The El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestra (EPSYO) will close its 19th season next week. EPSYO will give a season-ending performance on Sunday, May 17 at the Plaza Theatre. The concert will showcase all four EPSYO performing ensembles, under the direction of conductors Nathan Black, Jose Rios, Rodrigo Maldonado, and Shannon Clark. The concerts will open with a performance by students from the Tocando Music Project … a free after-school program of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra that provides music learning and performing opportunities to … students in El Paso’s El Segundo Barrio. The El Paso Youth String Philharmonic is a strings-only ensemble designed for musicians with limited orchestral experience. Under the direction of Rodrigo Maldonado, the ensemble will perform pieces by contemporary composers … Soon Hee Newbold and … Brian Balmages. The El Paso Youth String Ensemble, led by Shannon Clark, will perform [works] by G.F. Handel and Ian Edlund. Conductor Jose Rios will lead the El Paso Youth Symphony [in] Dvořák’s ‘New World Symphony.’ The second half of the program will feature EPSYO’s advanced orchestra, the El Paso Youth Orchestra (YO), conducted by Nathan Black, in William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American).”
