BY CAROLINE SHYR
Each summer, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute brings together the brightest young players from across the country to form the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA). Two students from Manhasset were selected to represent the United States of America: 2016 graduate Michael Gabriel (double bass), a freshman at The Juilliard School, and current junior Ryan Chung (cello), who studies at the Juilliard Pre-College program.
The members of the 2016 NYO-USA, ages 16-19, hail from 33 states and have been recognized by Carnegie Hall as being among the finest players in the country, following a comprehensive national audition process. After a two-week training residency with leading professional orchestra musicians, these remarkable teenagers had the opportunity to play on the famed stage of Carnegie Hall and then embarked on a tour to some of the great music capitals of the world, while serving as dynamic musical ambassadors.
Both Gabriel and Chung toured Europe this past summer and performed at concert venues in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Montpelier and Prague, under the direction of world-renowned conductors Valery Gergiev, Giancarlo Guerrero and Christoph Eschenbach. They performed with soloists Emanuel Ax, Denis Matsuev and members of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Congratulations to both on a fine job representing Manhasset and our nation.
