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The Cornell Orchestras and Maestro Chris Kim with the Mahler 6 hammer at the welcome picnic in September 2016.
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 100 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, 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 an thorough awareness of the musical context from which the excerpts are taken.
The Cornell Orchestras are proud to announce a tour to Argentina this coming spring from March 31-April 9, 2017, an experience which will surely be unforgettable. We expect to have sixty musicians participate, as we travel to the thriving capital city of Buenos Aires, the breathtaking town of Bariloche nestled in the Andes, and the quaint city of Neuquén.
Upon our arrival in Neuquén, we will be continuing our three-year collaborative artistic partnership with the brilliant Maestro Andrés Tolcachir and La Orquestra Sinfónica del Neuquén.
La Orquestra Sinfónica del Neuquén.
In representing Cornell University while in Argentina for seven days, we hope to partake in a cross-cultural conversation with the people and musicians we meet in Argentina that will stay with us for a lifetime, by elevating our collective level of musical and cultural understanding.
For our complete 2017 Argentina itinerary, please visit our tour website at: http://cuorchestra.wixsite.com/argentina2017!
We appreciate any level of generosity towards our tour to Argentina, 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 for this opportunity through Cornell Crowdfunding to unite the university community through a common love of music and cross-cultural understanding!
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 large instruments while in Argentina, including cellos, harp, tuba, and percussion.
Cover a student's cost of three nights in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Starting at this level, businesses who contribute at this level will have a small advertisement featured on our website and in our concert programs.
Make a major impact as a Benefactor by helping to reduce travel fees for our musicians!
Your honorable contribution will place you within the circle of major supporters for the Cornell Orchestras!
Your generous contribution will fly two students to Argentina and back.
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.