Note for SYSO Musicians

Dear SYSO musicians,

Welcome to the 2020 season of the Spokane Youth Symphony Orchestra! I am so excited to be working with you this fall, IN PERSON! While I enjoyed our Zoom meetings in the spring, there’s nothing like making music together! We are going to have an amazing time working on the literature that we didn’t get to play in the spring, namely Dvorak’s New World Symphony and the Egyptian March by Strauss. If things are going well and we have the players, I will add another piece. The hope is for a streamed performance at some date in November or possibly early December. Those details are still being worked out.

Safety and fun are the keys to a successful season. The organization has set some protocols and guidelines which we will need to follow scrupulously. In short, stay distanced, wash your hands frequently, use hand sanitizer, wear a mask at all times, and bring your own materials. Don’t come to rehearsal if you are exhibiting symptoms or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. Be sure to follow all these protocols and directions from our orchestra aids.

For the time being, you will need to bring your own music stand until we have access to the storage closets and can bring our music stands from St. John’s up to the new location. If you will be using a wire music stand, please wrap the feet in some kind of electrical or duct tape. We will be rehearsing on a gym floor which has a brand new finish on it! I don’t want to risk scratching the floor. For the same reason, we may want to remove shoes when you come in the building. Bring slippers if you like!

Music is available to print in advance from the Google Drive. Please visit https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CfPxCRI7pWCtttRjoIi6Gx_tGOJfgc6x?usp=sharing

I will also bring copies to the first rehearsal.

Dr. Baldwin

Dr. Philip Baldwin

SYS Artistic Director and SYSO Conductor