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:
“I beg to assure you that I have never written you, or spoken to you, in greater kindness or feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as in my most anxious judgement, I consistently can. But you must act.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“If a foreign country doesn’t look like a middle-class suburb of Dallas or Detroit, then obviously the natives must be dangerous as well as badly dressed.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“Better to endure hardship in youth than poverty in old age.”
—Chinese proverb.
““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)