Premiere Orchestra

  • Winter Quarter music will be available via PDF download by Friday, January 5. Instructions on how to download music will be sent via email to all enrolled BYSO students.
  • Click here for Conductor’s Messages

Rehearsals will be held on Monday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Musicians are expected to arrive and be prepared to rehearse 15 minutes prior to start time.

WINTER QUARTER 2024 DETAILS

Rehearsals Winter Quarter Dates
Mondays from 6:30 – 8:30 pm Rehearsals begin on Monday, January 8
Rehearsal Location Drop Off/ Pick Up
Overlake Christian Church Please plan on prompt drop off and pick up to
9900 Willows Rd NE avoid congestion. Note: entrance to building
Redmond, WA 98052 is past a very long parking lot.
Retreat Retreat Location
Saturday, February 3 Odle Middle School
11:00am – 4:00pm 502 143 Ave NE
Bellevue, WA 98007
Winter Concert Time & Date
Meydenbauer Theatre Sunday, March 17 @ 7:00pm
11100 NE 6th St ∙ Premiere Chamber Ensembles Arrive by: 5:00 pm
Bellevue, WA 98004 ∙ Premiere Arrive by: 5:30 pm
 

SPRING QUARTER 2024 DETAILS

Rehearsals Spring Quarter Dates
Mondays from 6:30 – 8:30 pm Rehearsals begin on Monday, March 25
No Rehearsal on Monday, April 8 (Spring Break)
Rehearsal Location Drop Off/ Pick Up
Overlake Christian Church Please plan on prompt drop off and pick up to
9900 Willows Rd NE avoid congestion. Note: entrance to building
Redmond, WA 98052 is past a very long parking lot.
Saturday Rehearsal Saturday Rehearsal Location
Saturday, April 20 Odle Middle School
12:00pm – 2:00pm 502 143 Ave NE
Bellevue, WA 98007
Spring Concert Time & Date
Benaroya Concert Hall Saturday, May 11 @ 3:00pm
200 University St. Call Times TBD.
Seattle, WA 98101

Student Checklist

  • Bring a music stand
  • Bring a pencil
  • 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!

About

Premiere Orchestra is an intermediate orchestra in the Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestra organization. The typical Premiere Orchestra student has had some private instruction and school ensemble experience and is working to improve technical proficiency.

Premiere Orchestra introduces young musicians to full orchestral instrumentation (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) with repertoire that appropriately challenges their experience level. Past works performed include Brahms’s Hungarian Dances 5 & 6, Vaughan Williams’s Rhosymedre, and Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No. 7 in D minor.

Recent Premiere Orchestra Performance

Conductor: David Drassal

David Drassal is a Tri-Cities area native, where he attended Southridge High School, playing trumpet in the bands and violin in the orchestra. He began Suzuki violin lessons at age 7 with Melvina Romanelli in Richland, WA and went on to receive a B.M. and M.A. in Music Education from Central Washington University. Mr. Drassal started with BYSO in 2007 as a violin coach for Premiere and has been the director for the Premiere Orchestra since 2013. Mr. Drassal also teaches orchestra at Tyee Middle School in Bellevue. Learn more.

Contact David Drassal at premiere@byso.org

Messages from the Conductor

Winter Quarter 2024

Welcome to Winter Quarter 2024! We are excited to get back to making music with you!

Saturday, February 3- RETREAT- Seating Auditions

Your coach will be listening for: tone quality, intonation, rhythm, tempo, articulation, and style.

Please perform as close to the concert tempo as you are comfortable playing. Clean playing at a slower tempo is better than fast and inaccurate.

Tempo Markings-

  • Corelli- Adagio quarter note = 66; Allegro = 108
  • Sheldon- quarter = 72
  • Saint Saens= half note = 108
  • FLUTE
    • Corelli: 43-51
    • Sheldon: 16-20, 29-33
    • Saint Saens: 2-3, 22-23
  • OBOE
    • Corelli: pickup to 74-83
    • Sheldon: 16-20, pickup to 27-34
    • Saint Saens: 2-3, 20-21
  • CLARINET
    • Corelli: 43-51
    • Sheldon: 1-8, 16-20
    • Saint Saens: 2-3, 6-7
  • BASS CLARINET
    • Sheldon: 4-9, 22-35
    • Saint Saens: 6-8, pickup to 17-18
  • TRUMPET
    • Corelli: 17-25, 83-90
    • Sheldon: 1-10, 15-21
    • Saint Saens: 6-7, 12-13
  • HORN
    • Corelli: 57-69
    • Sheldon: pickup to 8-13, 27-35
    • Saint Saens: 9-10
  • EUPHONIUM
    • Corelli: 17-25
    • Sheldon: pickup to 27-35
    • Saint Saens: 16-17, 20-21
  • VIOLIN 1 and 2
    • Corelli: 1-30, 51-80
    • Sheldon: Pickup to 13-26, 35-40
    • Saint Saens: Pickup to 2-4, 6-9, 17-19
  • VIOLA
    • Corelli: 51-69, 78-99
    • Sheldon: 4-12
    • Saint Saens: 2-3, 4-bar after 5, 6-9, 11-12
  • CELLO and BASS
    • Sheldon: 7-13
    • Saint Saens: one before 2-3, 4 measures after 5-5 measures after 6, 4 measures after 16-17, 2 measures after 22-23

MUSIC PROGRAM-

We will be preparing three completely different pieces for our March concert. The first piece, the Corelli was originally written for a small chamber orchestra with soloists. This arrangement has the solo voices written into the section parts. We will be performing two movements from the Concerto Grosso Opus 6 No 6 in F Major- Adagio and Allegro.

Our second piece is Appalachian Morning, a modern piece by Robert Sheldon published in 2015. This piece was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Birmingham, United Kingdom and celebrates the musical influences of the Irish and Scottish settlers in Appalachia. Music from this area of the country is heavily influenced by the folk traditions of Scotland and Ireland and we have chosen this piece to fit with our theme this year at BYSO celebrating the diversification of American music.

We will end our program with one of my favorite pieces March Militaire Francais by Camille Saint-Saens written in 1880.

RECORDINGS FOR REFERENCE-

There are many good recordings of each of these pieces. Here are some I found that you can start with as you are learning this music and learning what it sounds like. Please do find other recordings of these pieces on your own if you can. You will find that each ensemble chooses to perform the music a little differently according to how they interpret the music.

Corelli- Adagio and Allegro from Opus 6 No 6

Corelli Opus 6 No 6– The adagio starts at the beginning. The Allegro begins at 8:20.

Appalachian Morning

Appalachian Morning, by Robert Sheldon – Score & Sound (youtube.com)

Marche Militaire Francais

Suite algérienne -Camille Saint Saëns – YouTube– The 4th movement begins at 16:45

 

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