The Works for Orchestra by Rock Artists program is a joint project of the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
     Funded in part by the Kulas Foundation and the Hillsdale Fund, the program celebrates music education and the convergence of classical and popular music. This educational endeavor gives students the opportunity to explore how an interest in popular music can be applied to classical music performance studies.
     Works for Orchestra by Rock Artists allows for the study and performance of orchestral pieces written by rock and roll musicians or adapted from their music.
 
Wednesday, May 28, 2003, 7:30pm
The Third Installment of Works for Orchestra by Rock Artists will feature CYO in another world premiere performance. CYO will be honoring the work and music of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Graham Nash with a performance of CLASSICAL NASH. Graham Nash will be joining CYO for the performance of "Teach Your Children Well".
     Featured on this program will be seven of Grahams songs that have been brilliantly scored for orchestra by local arrangers David Budin, Derek Snyder and Paul Leary. CLASSICAL NASH includes:
   "Critical Mass/Wind on the Water"
   "Soldiers of Peace"
   "Out of the Darkness"
   "Cathedral"
   "Our House"
   "Marrakesh Express"
   "Teach Your Children Well"
 

 
The concert will be held at Cleveland State University, Waetjen Auditorium, East 21st and Euclid Ave. in downtown Cleveland on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 at 7:30pm. Tickets will be available through TicketMaster by calling 216.241.5555. This concert is underwritten by the Kulas Foundation.
 
The second installment of the Works for Orchestra by Rock Artists series brought the music of Jaz Coleman back to Cleveland once again. CYO performed the world performance premiere of Coleman's Kashmir: Symphonic Led Zeppelin, a symphonic work based on songs by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Led Zeppelin. Symphonic Led Zeppelin included the following songs: "Kashmir", "Stairway to Heaven", "All My Love", "Goin' to California", "Friends", "Battle of Evermore", and "When the Levee Breaks".
     Joining CYO for the concert was local Irish pipe master Brian Bigley, who performed Coleman's Celtic feel rendition of the "Battle of Evermore", which Coleman subtitled "Belfast". Jon Vartan performed on Kashmir on the Oud along with violinist Mark Wood.
     The performance was held on Sunday, June 9, 2002 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
 
The inaugural concert was held on June 8, 2001, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. CYO presented the world premiere performance of Riders on the Storm: The Doors Concerto by Jaz Coleman. Riders on the Storm is a nine movement violin concerto with each movement based on one of The Doors' most well-known tunes. Violin soloist Mark Jackobs of the Cleveland Orchestra joined CYO and Music Director Liza Grossman for this special performance. Composer Jaz Coleman flew in from Prague to join CYO for the world premiere.

     In his opening remarks prior to the performance, Coleman explained that the concerto was written in honor of those who died in the Vietnam War. Ray Manzarek, Doors keyboardist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee joined CYO in a fabulous rendition of "Light My Fire."
     "It was a fantastic experience," Manzarek explained of the CYO concert. "I had never played with a symphony orchestra before. The sound of the orchestra was overwhelming and being supported, as I played my solos, by an entire symphony orchestra was a moving experience."
    

(thanks, Chris)