Samo students set out on international tour

Muhammad Yusuf TarrStaff WriterSamo students Eli Brown ('13) and Ryan Roberts ('14) will tour with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), a newly formed orchestra of the best musicians in the United States, for a month during the upcoming summer.Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute gathered the best 120 student musicians from different parts of the nation to form an orchestra of exemplary high school students."It's an honor and I am not surprised," Band Director Kevin McKeown said. "[The NYO-USA] is recognizing [that] these two students work [as] hard as any student, or harder. I hope they are able to come back with great stories that will inspire our students to strive next year."Brown is looking forward to working and learning with the other student musicians.Roberts said that the NYO-USA will tour Washington D.C., London, Moscow and Saint Petersburg nearly free of cost from June 30 to July 23, with a two week training session in New York.Brown said that Saint Petersburg, Moscow, London and Washington D.C. are all cities with huge musical influences."Musical tours always enhance a student's perspective on the pieces that they are performing," Orchestra Director Joni Swenson said. "I’m sure that they will be working on Russian, American and English pieces and performing in those cities will be quite meaningful."Brown said that being accepted into the orchestra means he is one of the top four trumpet players in the country and Roberts is one of the top three oboe players in the country.“The most amazing part is that I am going to be with the 119 best musicians in the United States,” Brown said. “All of us [are] really accomplished in our own little spheres, and we are going to combine and [make] something new. Every single player is going to be a star player.”Swenson admires the musicians for their achievement."The entire music department is proud of Eli and Ryan," Swenson said. "It is a tremendous honor to have two musicians from Samo in this illustrious ensemble."Brown and Roberts said it will be an honor to work with the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and World Orchestra for Peace Valery Gergiev and famous violinist Joshua Bell. Gergiev is the Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg.Joshua Bell is the Music Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Detroit, Omaha, Boston, Seattle and Cincinnati Symphonies.“[Valery Gergiev] is ridiculous,” Brown said. “This is absolutely insane in a good way. He’s one of the busiest conductors in the music world right now.”Brown is looking forward to returning to Russia as he attended a conducting master class in Saint Petersburg last year.“It’s going to be incredible to go back,” Brown said. “I’ll be seeing it in a different context this time, because last time I went for a conducting master class, and this time I am going to be a member of a symphony orchestra.”McKeown believes that Brown and Roberts earned this experience."What makes Eli and Ryan so good is that they are good but they are humble," McKeown said. "They are the kind of students that continue to be sponges, they listen and have a way to get something out of every teacher [with whom] they work. That's really refreshing because it's easy for some kids to get full of themselves, but these two kids get it."Brown and Roberts both feel that this is an amazing opportunity to become better musicians.“I am sure that while we are there we are going to experience the culture that so many of the greatest composers experienced,” Roberts said. “We get to see what they surrounded themselves with to become inspired to write this great music that we are privileged enough to get to play.”mytarr@thesamohi.com