East County Youth Symphony (ECYS)

Pre-Orchestra Division students are children ages 7 to 14. All of them are enrolled in string ensembles where they study orchestra repertoire. Every Pre-Orchestra Division student is required to attend Music Theory class. We also offer Solfeggio, collaborative piano and music software classes to those who is interested. These additional classes are electives.

We also offer additional classes such as Sibelius (professional music notation program), Cakewalk (former Sonar, a professional soundtrack writing program), and ProTools (recording and mixing software). These courses are for kids who are interested in carriers in Music Industry, audio recoding, composition, soundtrack writing, etc. Our alumni who went though ECYS very first digital music courses are now hold master's Degree in soundtrack writing and work at the most prestigious Burbank studios as composers and sound designers. These classes are as important as our performance classes.

ECYS Advanced Orchestra consists of high school and college orchestra players. This group performs professional repertoire such as L. van Beethoven's Symphonies No.1,3,5,7, J. Brahms's Symphony No.3, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.2, C Frank's Symphony in D, etc. This orchestra is designed to introduce advanced and pre-professional level players to the professional environment. We have mentors, who are experienced, high class professionals tutoring every orchestra section before the concerts. These seasoned musicians also perform with students. Usually we have 11 or 12 of htem to mentor and help kids to learn their difficult parts. This model is working very well for those who are just starting their professional career in classical music.