Spring Quarter music links will be emailed to all enrolled students at 4:00 pm on March 19, 2026 in the weekly newsletter. Email admin@byso.org with any questions.
Rehearsals will be held on Monday evenings from 6:15 – 8:30 pm. Musicians are expected to arrive and be prepared to rehearse 15 minutes prior to start time.
SPRING QUARTER 2026 DETAILS
Rehearsals
Spring Quarter Dates
Mondays from 6:15 – 8:30 pm
3/23, 3/30, 4/13, 4/20, 4/27, 5/4, and 5/11
There is no rehearsal on 4/6 on Spring Break.
Rehearsal Location
Drop Off/ Pick Up
Bellevue Children’s Academy, South Campus
Plan on prompt drop off and pick up to avoid
14640 NE 24th St
congestion. *Parents/guardians are not able
Bellevue, WA 98007
to wait inside this venue during rehearsal.
Retreat Location
Time & Date
Retreats take place in Fall &
No retreat in Spring quarter.
Winter Quarter.
Concert
Time & Date
Bastyr University Chapel
Sunday, May 17 @ 3:00 pm
14500 Juanita Dr NE,
Call times and more will be posted
Kenmore, WA 98028
as the concerts get closer.
Student Checklist
Bring a pencil
Bring a music stand
Print your sheet music prior to first rehearsal (using link at top of this page) and bring with you to rehearsal
Arrive 15 minutes prior to the start of rehearsal to ensure you are in your chair and ready to play at the start of rehearsal
Have fun!
ATTENDANCE POLICY FOR LAST REHEARSAL BEFORE CONCERT
In order to participate in the concert, Philharmonia students who miss the final Monday night rehearsal before a concert will be required to submit a video recording of them performing the excerpts used for seating auditions posted in the Conductor’s Messages on the Philharmonia page (below). For those excerpts, students will play their assigned part for the concert (Clarinet 2 plays that part, Trombone 2 plays that part, Violin 2 plays that part, etc.). Students can send a link to accessible platforms like YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. Please make sure you have adjusted the sharing settings appropriately and make sure you are clearly visible in the video recording. Students must submit this no later than 11:59 PM Wednesday. Mr. Kempisty will review the submission and notify the student and parent of the result by end of day on Thursday.
About
Philharmonia is an advanced orchestra in the Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestra organization. The typical Philharmonia student has had several years of private instruction and substantial ensemble experience and is highly skilled on his or her instrument.
Philharmonia prepares high-level musicians for possible entry into Youth Symphony with challenging full orchestra pieces. Past works performed include Brahms’s AcademicFestival Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March in Bb Minor, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 35.
Recent Philharmonia Performances
Conductor: Joseph Kempisty
Joseph Kempisty holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from The Ohio State University and a Master of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies degree from the University of Washington. He has taught elementary, middle, and high school orchestras in the Midwest as well as in the Bellevue School District, where he was also a school administrator for fourteen years. Learn more.
Congratulations on a great Winter Concert!!! Thank you for your repertoire requests! For Spring Quarter, we will be performing:
Soon Hee Newbold: The Iliad
Gustav Holst: The Planets
I. Mars
IV. Jupiter
Newbold was commissioned by the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles to compose a couple of pieces including this piece from 2025.
Important Note on printing your parts: Look for the BYSO Newsletter email coming near the end of the week before our March 23rd rehearsal. That will have links to your parts.
For Everyone: Please be sure to print ALL the parts for your instrument. For example, Trumpets print both parts for Holst (Trumpet12 and Trumpet34) and all three parts for Newbold. Violins print V1 and V2 for all pieces, etc.
Our Seating Auditions will take place at our second Monday night rehearsal on March 30. The spots will be from Holst’s Mars and/or Jupiter movements. Seating Audition tempo range for both movements is quarter = 110 to 120.
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet
Mars: Rehearsal IX (9) to XII (12)
Jupiter: 11 measures before rehearsal XVI (16) to XVI (16)
French Horn
Mars: 8 measures after rehearsal IV (4) to 2 measures after V (5)
Jupiter: Measure 6 to measure 12 (start of movement) & Rehearsal V (5) to VI (6)
Trumpet
Mars: Rehearsal IV (4) to VI (6)
Trombone
Mars: Rehearsal IV (4) to 10 measures after V (5) including the Tenor Tuba cues
Jupiter: 4 measures after rehearsal XI (11) to XII (12)
Violin, Viola
Mars: 5 measures after rehearsal IX (9) to XII (12)
Jupiter: Rehearsal XI (11) to 4 measures before XII (12)
Cello
Mars: 5 measures after rehearsal IX (9) to XII (12)
Jupiter: Rehearsal XIII (13) to 13 measures after XII (13)
——————–
Winter Quarter and Seating Audition spots
Congratulations again on an incredible Fall Concert performance at Benaroya Hall! I’m looking forward to our upcoming rehearsals in Philharmonia!
Thank you for your repertoire requests! For Winter Quarter, we will be performing:
Leonard Bernstein: Overture to Candide
Moussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel’s version)
Promenade (first one)
IX. Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
X. Great Gate of Kiev
Moussorgsky originally wrote this work for solo piano. We are using Maurice Ravel’s full symphonic transcription from that original work. Ravel’s is the one used worldwide by professional orchestras.
Important Notes on printing your parts: Look for the BYSO Newsletter email coming near the end of the week before our January 5 rehearsal. That will have links to your parts.
ForEveryone: Please be sure to print ALL the parts for your instrument. For example, Trumpets print both parts for Bernstein and all three parts for Moussorgsky. Violins print V1 and V2 for both pieces, etc.
ForEveryone: We are definitely performing those three ‘Pictures…’ movements above, but I would like to go through all the movements at some point, so please print the full part. We may add additional movements for the performance as well.
Note for Trombones: For ‘Pictures…,’ part 1 and 2 are in Tenor clef. If you don’t know how to read that clef yet, check out this Trombone-specific ‘How To’ video on reading Tenor Clef: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fMgQYBZmcA
Seating Auditions will take place at our Winter Retreat on Saturday, January 10 from 9am to 12pm at Odle Middle School (details at the top of this webpage).
For instruments with more than one part, you will play the first part for your Seating Audition. For example, Flute will play part one, French Horn will play part one, Violin will play Violin 1, etc.
For Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel), here are the movement abbreviations for the Seating Audition excerpts below:
‘Promenade’ means the very first, opening Promenade.
‘Hut’ means mvmt 9 (IX. La Cabane sur des Pattes de Poule, Baba-Yaga, The Hut on Fowl’s Legs).
‘Gate’ means the final mvmt 10 which starts at rehearsal 103 (X. La Grande Porte de Kiev, The Great Gate of Kiev).
Flute
Moussorgsky ‘Hut’ – rehearsal 84 to 87
Bernstein Candide – m10-20, m63-82, and m208-231
Oboe
Moussorgsky ‘Hut’ – rehearsal 84 to 87
Bernstein Candide – m11-21 and m208-231
Clarinet
Moussorgsky ‘Hut’ – rehearsal 84 to 87
Bernstein Candide – m10-20 and m216-231
French Horn
Moussorgsky ‘Promenade’ – Beginning to rehearsal 1 and one measure before rehearsal 3 to 5
Bernstein Candide – Beginning to m23 and m178-202
Trumpet
Moussorgsky ‘Promenade’ – Beginning to rehearsal 2
Moussorgsky ‘Gate’ – rehearsal 115 to 118
Bernstein Candide – Beginning to m6 and m47-55
Trombone
Moussorgsky ‘Gate’ – Beginning (rehearsal 103) to one measure after rehearsal 105 and rehearsal 115 to 118
Bernstein Candide – Beginning to m6 and m47-55
Violin
Moussorgsky ‘Hut’ – rehearsal 84 to 87
Bernstein Candide – m10-20 and m216-231
Viola
Moussorgsky ‘Hut’ – rehearsal 84 to 87
Bernstein Candide – m240-255 and m258-277
Cello
Moussorgsky ‘Gate’ – rehearsal 105 to 106
Bernstein Candide – m186-203 and m259-277
Double Bass
Moussorgsky ‘Hut’ – rehearsal 90 to one measure after rehearsal 92
Bernstein Candide – m7-22 and m32-49
Below is a link to Bernstein’s Overture to Candide performed by the New York Philharmonic in 2008 at an historic concert in North Korea. Since a memorial concert for Bernstein in 1990, the New York Philharmonic has performed this piece without a conductor. Bernstein was their music director 1958-1969 and their laureate conductor from 1969 until his death in 1990. The piece starts at 1:40.
Seating Audition spots for Fall Retreat (Saturday 9/27)
See Retreat time and location details at the top of this page. For Seating Auditions, play the first part for your instrument (if more than one part). See you on Saturday!
Flute
Sibelius: 7 measures before B to C
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 42 to m 50
Oboe
Sibelius: 7 measures before B to C
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 42 to m 44
Clarinet
Sibelius: 7 measures before B to C
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 42 to m 53
French Horn
Sibelius: Beginning to A
Sibelius: M to O
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 13 to m 21
Trumpet
Sibelius: Beginning to A
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 12 to m 39
Miranda: m 40 to m 48
Trombone
Sibelius: Beginning to A
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 12 to m 39
Violin
Sibelius: 9 measures after A to C
Sibelius: M to O
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 4 to m 13
Viola
Sibelius: 9 measures after A to C
Sibelius: M to O
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 4 to m 17
Cello
Sibelius: 9 measures after A to C
Sibelius: M to O
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 4 to m 13
Miranda: m 74 to m 81
Double Bass
Sibelius: 9 measures after A to C
Sibelius: M to O
Sibelius: Q to R
Miranda: m 56 to m 73
Welcome to a new season of Philharmonia!
Our Fall Quarter starts on Monday, September 22nd, and our Fall Retreat is Saturday, September 27 from 9am to 12pm (see location details for rehearsals and retreat at the top of this page).
One important detail about our Fall Retreat (9/27): This is where we will have Seating Auditions for each section. If you have a conflict or are unable to attend our Fall Retreat, you will not be able to do your audition – and that is ok. You will be seated at the end of your section for this Fall Concert, but we have seating auditions at the start of each rehearsal cycle.
The Winter Concert seating auditions will take place at our Winter Retreat on Saturday, January 10 (also in the morning).
Our Spring Concert seating auditions will take place during one of our regular Monday night rehearsals likely on Monday, April 13 (this will be confirmed later).
I will post the seating audition spots for all instruments on this page the week of our first rehearsal. Everyone will prepare the first part of their instrument (if more than one). Information will be shared via email from our BYSO office with a link to your parts the week before our first rehearsal.
For those instruments that have multiple parts (Woodwinds, Brass, Violin): For our first rehearsal, there are no part assignments. We will alternate parts throughout that rehearsal, so be sure to print all your parts once they are posted (sometimes you will play 1st part, sometimes 2nd part, etc.). Part assignments will be made after our 9/27 Fall Retreat based on the seating auditions.
One request: Each season, I like to include pieces that are suggested by our Philharmonia musicians. If you have a piece and/or composer in mind that you would like me to consider, please email that to me at philharmonia@byso.org
Looking forward to a great season!
Mr. Kempisty, Philharmonia Conductor
As an example for our new Philharmonia musicians and families, below are pieces we performed last season. Philharmonia typically performs the professional-level, original work as written by the composer which was the case for all of these except the Wicked musical highlights.
George Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1
Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, Allegro con fuoco (Fourth Movement)
Soon Hee Newbold’s Alpha and Omega
Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked (Highlights from the musical, arranged by Ted Ricketts)
Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Finale (Fourth Movement)
Giuseppe Verdi’s La Forza Del Destino Overture
Example recording of one of our Fall Quarter pieces: Symphony No. 2, Finale(Fourth Movement) by Jean Sibelius. This is a performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.