© 2024 Cornell University, All Rights Reserved
Show your love for the Orchestras: Give to the 2019 Tour!
We appreciate any level of generosity towards our tour to Taiwan, and everybody who donates will be recognized on our website and in our concert programs! In our efforts to fundraise, we hope that alumni, family, friends, and supporters of the Cornell Orchestras will understand how much this means to each and every one of us musicians. We are so excited about this opportunity through Cornell Crowdfunding to unite the university community through a common love of music and cross-cultural understanding!
About the Cornell Orchestras
The Cornell Orchestras, led by Professor Chris Younghoon Kim, are comprised of the Cornell Symphony Orchestra and the Cornell Chamber Orchestra. Both orchestras can be found on campus, made up of a mix of undergraduates, graduate students, and even faculty members. In a way, the orchestras represent a wonderful microcosm of the greater Cornell community, through diversity in colleges and majors.
The Cornell Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is comprised of approximately 130 musicians and is dedicated to performing symphonic repertoire from the baroque through the twentieth century, as well as contemporary works of our time. The CSO presents 4-6 concerts per year including the annual Concerto Concert, at which the winner of the Cornell University Concerto Competition performs with the orchestra. Guest conductors have included Leon Fleisher, Johannes Schlaefli (Zurich Hochschule), and Larry Rachleff (Rice University) among others, and the orchestra has collaborated with many of today's most prominent composers including Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Dennis Kim, Jennifer Ko, etc.
The CSO has been distinguished with six awards in seven years with the ASCAP prizes for Adventurous Programming in the Collegiate Division by the League of American Orchestras, with first prize in the 2011-2012 ASCAP Awards and second prize in 2013-14. The CSO's 2013-2014 performances have been recognized by the American Prize in the following three categories; Finalist in Orchestral Programming - the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award, Finalist in The American Prize in Orchestral Performance (college/university division) for performance of Barber's Symphony No. 1, Finalist in The American Prize in Conducting (College/University Orchestra Division) for performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.
The Cornell Chamber Orchestra (CCO) has consistently maintained a high caliber of excellence in chamber orchestral performance. The CCO was named the winner of the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 ASCAP awards for Adventurous Programming in the Collegiate Division. The CCO is comprised of approximately 25 string musicians, often collaborating with renowned soloists such as Frank Campos and Miri Yampolsky.
Membership in the CSO and CCO is open to all Cornell students and affiliates at the start of each academic year by audition. Audition repertoire and excerpts are available online in early August of each summer. Auditions take place during orientation week and must show a mastery of the material and a thorough awareness of the musical context from which the excerpts are taken.
The Orchestras are Taiwan-bound!
The Cornell Orchestras are proud to announce a tour to Taiwan this winter from January 9-20, 2019, an experience which will surely be unforgettable. We have over 90 musicians participating, as we travel to the breathtaking capital city of Taipei, Taiwan. Upon our arrival in Taipei and begin our partnership with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and phenomenal violinist, Ting-Hsuan Hu. The tour will then conclude with this combined performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Mahler Symphony No. 1. In representing Cornell University while in Taiwan for eleven days, we hope to partake in a cross-cultural conversation with the people and musicians we meet in Taiwan that will stay with us for a lifetime, elevating our collective level of musical and cultural understanding.
Your contribution will continue a Cornell tradition of beautiful music, cultural understanding, and lifelong enrichment!
The Cornell Orchestras thank you for all your support, and we look forward to bringing you even more wonderful music for the years to come! Thank you!
This will go towards renting larger instruments such as cellos, percussion, tubas, and harps.
Cover the cost of transportation, excluding flights, for 1 student! Starting here, businesses that contribute can opt to have a small advertisement in our programs and on our website.
Make a major impact by helping to reduce plane ticket costs for our musicians!
Your donation will cover the cost of lodging for 1 student for the whole tour!
You join an exclusive group of our generous donators, and will be thanked with a personalized letter from the tour planning committee! Your name will be featured in our program under Concertmaster's Circle.
Your generous contribution will cover all flight costs for 3 students!
The premier circle of supporters of the Cornell Orchestras! Your amazing generosity will be dearly cherished by each and every member of the orchestras for the years to come.