Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra

The Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO) is a youth orchestra in Dallas, Texas founded in 1972. It consists of 7 groups from ages five to eighteen and all instruments in the symphony orchestra. The first group is the Young Performers Orchestra (YPO) which is the youngest group. The second group is the Dallas String Ensemble (DSE). Next is the Sinfonietta group which focuses on slightly harder music and technique. Then there is the Philharmonic which is a full orchestra with wind instruments also and percussion. There is also a Wind Symphony which is only winds, brass and percussion. The sixth group is the flute choir which has 12 members performing only on flute. Finally there is the GDYO which is the highest level orchestra.

Every 3–4 years they go on tour outside North America. In 1998 they played in England, in 2004 in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, and the most recent trip in 2007 was to China.

In 2000 the GDYO was one of five orchestras to qualify for the National Youth Orchestra Festival in Sarasota, Florida.

Famous quotes containing the words greater, dallas, youth and/or orchestra:

    There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
    Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)

    A sceptic finds Dallas absurd. A cynic thinks the public doesn’t.
    Clive James (b. 1939)

    His youth was distinguished by all the tumult and storm of pleasures, in which he licentiously triumphed, disdaining all decorum. His fine imagination was often heated and exhausted with his body in celebrating and deifying the prostitute of the night, and his convivial joys were pushed to all the extravagancy of frantic bacchanals.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    “Pop” Wyman ruled here with a firm but gentle hand; no drunken man was ever served at the bar; no married man was allowed to play at the tables; across the face of the large clock was written “Please Don’t Swear,” and over the orchestra appeared the gentle admonition, “Don’t Shoot the Pianist—He’s Doing His Damndest.”
    —Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program. Colorado: A Guide to the Highest State (The WPA Guide to Colorado)