By: Boris Gaidai
This September, the newly established Youth Orchestra for the Pensacola Symphony began rehearsing for the 2025-26 season. The orchestra will play two concerts, the first on November 16th and the second on April 12th, and they will also be participating in the regular Orchestra’s 100th anniversary gala in April.
The Youth Orchestra is made up of 45 students from 7th grade up to 12th, covering instruments from all music families. They will be performing pieces ranging from classical composers like Wagner and Chopin to more contemporary composers like Eric Whitaker and Robert Sheldon.
The Pensacola Symphony aims to give those students in the orchestra a feel for performing in a professional setting. “I run rehearsals exactly like a professional orchestra,” said Dr. Daniel Stevens, the Youth Orchestra’s conductor.
Dr. Stevens is an experienced music educator and has started two other youth orchestras. “We are really honored and grateful to have him as our conductor,” said Julie Martin Green, the Music Education Administrator for the Pensacola Symphony.
The Youth Orchestra has been a project that the Pensacola Symphony has been building up to for several years. “Last year, we had a chamber strings group and a wind ensemble, and over the last three summers we’ve been doing a workshop for students who were interested in playing in a symphony orchestra setting,” Green said.
Currently, those ensembles and the workshop are on hold in favor of the Youth Orchestra, but Green said that in the future, “it is the plan that we might have some smaller ensembles from the youth orchestra get together and work out pieces that they can form out in the community.”
Green went on to say that the ultimate mission of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra is to serve the local community through their musical performances, “and this service extends to the young musicians in the area. We also hope to instill in them that sense of service through music.”