The Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony is an instrumental performing ensemble based in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The ensemble is selected regularly to perform on the international level. Their latest international tour was in June 2018, when the wind ensemble travelled to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to perform in the Florence Festival of Youth Orchestras. In Summer 2020, the group traveled to Ireland. The group has also traveled to Australia where they performed in the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

, combining with three other ensembles to premier a new David Gillingham piece, "The Sails of Time."

Origins

Founding

The Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony (CYWS) was founded in 1989 by Dr. Gary M. Ciepluch and Robert McAllister. The group was created as a joint venture between

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

and The Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1995, the group became too large, and was thus split into upper and lower parts, The Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony Group I and II, respectively. Both groups are full ensembles, the former being conducted by Dr. Ciepluch, and the latter by Melissa Lichter. As of November 1, 2009 another group has been added to CYWS. According to the announcement by Dr. Ciepluch at the concert on November 1, 2009, there are so many talented young people in the area schools, he and the other directors decided to start this third group. While there are three groups, there are only two levels, as both Group II Symphonic Winds and Concert Winds play the same level of music. The groups are intended to provide talented high school students the opportunity to play exceptionally difficult high school pieces, college literature, and "Grade 6" professional works. Members come from about 75 area high schools. Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony, both groups I and II, is in residence at

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...

Directors

After Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony's 2016 European tour, Dr. Ciepluch retired from his post as director of Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. Melissa Lichtler, Dan Crain, and Darren Allen became co-directors of the group, with Crain directing Group I, Lichtler directing Group II Symphonic Winds, and Allen directing Group II Concert Winds. In 2022, CYWS officially became a 501-(c) 3 organization.

Orchestration

Both Group I and II are standard large wind symphonies. This orchestration includes

flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

piccolos The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

clarinets The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. ...

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

oboes The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

, bassoons,

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

, and

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

in F,

trumpets The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ...

trombones The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

euphoniums The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word ''euphōnos'', meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

s, and a myriad of

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

. However, the advanced literature that both groups perform often calls for a more diverse orchestration. Thus, an

English Horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...

is not uncommon, nor is a

soprano sax The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

during solo sections. More uncommonly, Group I required a member to play

contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences. Differences from the bassoon The reed is consi ...

while premiering Christopher Tucker's "A Light in the Deep."

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

accompaniments to pieces are fairly common, and the group membership almost certainly contains an accomplished pianist. According to an archived Case article.

References

{{reflist
Horn concerto
http://www.case.edu/pubs/casemagazine/spring2004/downloads/Faculty.pdf (PDF) Article retrieved 2022-5-02

External links

Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony
Musical groups from Cleveland Concert bands 1989 establishments in Ohio Musical groups established in 1989 Youth organizations based in Ohio