Young Artist Orchestra Concert Attendance PolicyYoung Artist Orchestra members are expected to perform, without exception, in all YAO concert events. Please check the GCYO calendar for the current seasons concert schedule. If severe illness or death in the family prevents a YAO member from performing in a concert event, the orchestra member’s family may be required to contribute to the hiring of a professional substitute by the YAO Personnel Manager. The substitute will be hired for the dress rehearsal and concert and will receive a fee of up to $75 per service, for a total compensation of $150 Rehearsal Attendance PolicyEach of the three Young Artist Concerts performed annually by the YAO is prepared in a cycle of approximately ten rehearsals. Though this seems like a generous number of rehearsals and amount of time, it is, in reality, just barely enough to insure that members will individually and collectively perform their music to the standards of the Young Artist Orchestra. Each rehearsal is a unique and unrepeatable step in preparing musicians for their upcoming concert, and each individual absence compromises the orchestra’s ability to achieve its ultimate accuracy and artistry. Therefore: 1) You (the orchestra member) are expected to attend ALL rehearsals in a given season. But: 2) You are allowed an absolute maximum of five (5) missed rehearsals per season (August to May) if special conflicts deem them necessary. 3) The following conflicts are considered legitimate reasons for missing a rehearsal: i) You must perform in a scheduled school concert. ii) You must participate in an event that is a fixed part of your religious calendar. 4) Look ahead in your calendar and plan for such events. For each, obtain an Absence Permission Form, have it signed by the proper persons and on file four weeks before an absence is to occur. 5) For each absence, you must design and submit a plan detailing how you will make up for the lost rehearsal time. (click here for a sample) FAILURE TO TURN IN THIS DOCUMENT WILL RESULT IN A DEDUCTION OF FIVE POINTS FROM YOUR TERM GRADE. 6) Keep in mind that absolutely no absences are permitted:
8) Having too much homework is not considered a valid excuse for missing a rehearsal. YAO is also a class, and when you are absent, it is impossible to make up the work! Plan ahead with regard to academic responsibilities.
For each rehearsal:
In rare cases, the Young Artist Orchestra has had to hire a substitute to take the place of a woodwind or brass player who has had to be away for an extended period of time. These long-term absences were approved but were exceptions to our normal attendance standards. Hiring a professional substitute was necessary because it was crucial for the other orchestra members to hear this solo voice, and because there was no student musician available within the orchestra to play the part. In the case of an approved, long-term absence, the musician’s family will be asked to contribute to the hiring of a professional substitute if it is deemed necessary by the Music Director and staff of the orchestra. Currently, the standard, per-service fee for a professional musician is $75.
Practice PolicyAs an orchestra member, you are expected to practice your YAO music consistently, starting as soon as you receive it, and continuing through the conclusion of each rehearsal cycle. You are expected to arrive at the first rehearsal with a basic mastery of the music in your folder, preferably having studied it with the assistance of your studio teacher. Orchestra members are expected to have obtained recordings of the works being rehearsed and to have listened to these recordings, following and becoming familiar with individual parts in context of the work at hand. You are expected to continue protocols of practicing, improving, and becoming increasingly familiar with your music through to the dress rehearsal and concert. In YAO rehearsals, we will broach style, expression, tone color, balance & blend, ensemble, unity of purpose, and all other aspects of orchestral technique and performance. In home practice, therefore, you must strive to achieve increasingly precise levels of pitch and rhythmic accuracy and fidelity to the notations on the page. So long as you practice consistently at home, your acuity for accuracy as well as your intolerance for inaccuracy will evolve over the course of each rehearsal cycle, as well as over the course of the year. If you do not practice your orchestra parts you will not increase this acuity for accuracy and intolerance for inaccuracy AND you will hold the orchestra back from achieving its performance goals.The Young Artist Orchestra will help you to learn your music in these ways:
|