What a week for all of us in Argentina, travelling through Buenos Aires, Bariloche, and finally Neuquén, where most of our week was spent working with Maestro Tolcachir and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Neuquén!

Our first day of the tour was spent wandering through the city of Buenos Aires upon landing, exploring such sights as Caminito Street, La Recoleta cemetery, and the Plaza de Mayo. We also sampled a taste of classic Argentinian cuisine at one of the many parrillas, or steakhouses, in the city.

Our brief stay in the village of Bariloche involved a short hike up Cerro Campanario, where we took in breathtaking panoramic views of the majestic Andes Mountains. We also explored the village's many shops and cafés, particularly the famous chocolate shops of Mitre Street (from which we certainly left with heavier stomachs and lighter wallets!)

Most of our stay was in the city of Neuquén, where we collaborated with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Neuquén. Aside from our daily morning rehearsals, we also visited a local winery, enjoyed maté along the Limay River, ate our way through countless empanada shops, and even played a friendly game of soccer against their orchestra members! You can even watch a video here of our sold-out concert on April 7 in the city of Neuquén, courtesy of the Fundación Banco Provincia del Neuquén (BPN)! The event was called “Nueva York & Neuquén en Concierto,” featuring the two combined orchestras' 120 musicians. 

Overall, Argentina was truly an unforgettable experience for our orchestra growing closer and understanding Mahler to a much deeper level, as well as for the wonderful people we met throughout our travels and had to pleasure of working with in Neuquén. The Cornell Orchestras cannot thank enough Maestro Andrés Tolcachir, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Neuquén, the Fundación Banco Provincia del Neuquén, the Governor of the Province of Neuquén, and our warm and welcoming audiences in Argentina! Again, we would like to thank our supporters for making this once-in-a-lifetime experience so unforgettable! Thank you for a wonderful week!

Photos:

1. From left to right: Maestro Andrés Tolcachir of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Neuquén, Conductor Chris Younghoon Kim of the Cornell Orchestras, Pablo Bongiovani of the presenting Fundación Banco Provincia del Neuquén (BPN), and Minister of Culture of the City of Neuquén Omar Gutiérrez.

2. Members of the Cornell Orchestras posed with a sign in beautiful Neuquén!

3. The combined orchestra turned to smile for a group picture onstage on concert night in Neuquén on April 7, featuring a packed house at the Cine Teatro Español. The concert was televised as well, and BPN also provided additional outdoor audience seating at el Monumento al Gral.

Happy Spring Break! The day is finally here!

We're here at JFK today, ready for our flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina after months of rehearsing and planning! We are so incredibly excited for the week that lies ahead, full of adventures and beautiful music. Check back here for more updates throughout the next few days!

Time sure flies by -- It's already the ten-day countdown until we take off for Argentina on March 31!

We are beyond excited for our upcoming tour, and since our concert on March 5 we've been back in the rehearsal room polishing up Mahler's 6th Symphony!

In case you missed our last concert, never fear: You can watch the full concert online on CornellCast! The Cornell Symphony Orchestra's March 5 program included Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with the 13th Annual Cornell Concerto Competition winner Irene Jeong '19, Sibelius' Finlandia, Joan Tower's Clarinet Concerto featuring Richard Faria (Professor of Clarinet at Ithaca College). Below is Conductor Chris Kim with the CSO on March 5, photo courtesy of Eric Shen '20.

Please join us here for further updates both leading up to and during our adventures through Buenos Aires, Bariloche, and Neuquén! Only ten more days! We can't wait to take you along with us, and thank you again for your support -- this tour wouldn't be possible without your help!

March is already here! This means springtime fast approaching (hopefully) in Ithaca, and this also means already less than ONE MONTH until we take off from New York's JFK Airport headed for Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 31!

Spring semester is already in full swing here on campus. On top of grueling coursework, seemingly endless exams, AND orchestra rehearsals, our dedicated tour planning committee has been hard at work with meetings every Wednesday evening to plan out all the logistics of the upcoming tour. Below you can find one of the many selfies of our committee taken to keep track of attendance:

Want to learn more about our tour over Cornell’s 2017 spring break? Check out our itinerary at: http://cuorchestra.wixsite.com/argentina2017/itinerary

We also have a very exciting spring concert season, with our first performance coming up this weekend on Sunday, March 5 at 3:00pm in Bailey Hall! The concert will include the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the 13th Annual Cornell Concerto Competition winner Irene Jeong '19, Sibelius' Finlandia, Joan Tower's Clarinet Concerto featuring Richard Faria (Professor of Clarinet at Ithaca College), and much more.

Even after our November crowdfunding campaign, we are still hard at work to fundraise and make this tour possible for all our members. If you know friends or family members who would like to make a generous contribution, we accept donations through Cornell's secure portal at: https://tinyurl.com/j7hx65y

We are so excited for the next several weeks, as we count down to takeoff to Argentina! Thank you again for your support!

It is officially November 30, and thanks to you we have officially reached and passed the 100% mark of our goal! We have actually reached 142% with still seven hours left! Thank you so much for your amazing, amazing support throughout this past month of November -- we really could not have done it without all of your incredible help!

Thank you from all of us here in the Cornell Orchestras! We are so excited to share our updates and adventures as we head to Argentina in April 2017 -- please feel free to check out our tour website http://cuorchestra.wixsite.com/argentina2017!

As a thank-you gift to our supporters, Conductor Chris Kim would like to present this lighthearted podcast interview of the story of his unforgettable twelve-hour audition. Please feel free to check it out here! http://nousecryingover.podbean.com/e/the-twelve-hour-audition-chris-kim/

It is November 29, and we have just one day left to reach our goal of $12,500! Thank you for supporting the Cornell Orchestras over this exciting month, and we are so delighted to say that we have reached 98% of our goal, with about 38 hours left! 

Today is Giving Tuesday! Please continue to tell your friends and colleagues to keep the orchestras in mind today, as we work hard to spread music and joy across the world!

We now have FOUR days left in our crowdfunding campaign, until 11:59PM on November 30! Thanks to the support of our amazing donors, we are now at 93% of our overall goal, and we are so close! 

As we now are in the home stretch, every bit of support we can get really will go such a long way, and to our friends and supporters we strongly encourage you to spread the word about our campaign, especially when their help could push us to reaching 100%!

Here is a beautiful photograph of the Cornell Symphony Orchestra at our recent concert at Bailey Hall on Nov. 19, 2016! We would all like to thank our donors for helping us making our November crowdfunding efforts so successful, and also to our audiences in general who continue to make each and every one of our Bailey Hall concerts so memorable!

Concert Night is here!! The Cornell Symphony Orchestra will be performing tonight, Saturday, November 19 at 7:00PM, at Bailey Hall playing the last movement, Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro moderato – Allegro energico, from Mahler's Symphony No. 6! Also, we will be performing Gabriela Lena Frank's La centinela y la paloma (The Keeper and the Dove), featuring soprano Jessica Rivera. We are very excited for our final fall 2016 concert tonight, especially with our very own Mahler hammer and box ready to go!

Out of town? Never fear! Our concert will be livestreamed tonight here! We look forward to you joining us, both at Bailey Hall and across the world online!

Here is the beautiful poster for this evening's concert, designed by violist Andrea Jin '17! Also, a closer look at our Mahler 6 hammer and box. Special thanks to: Violinist Emilie Camera '17 and clarinetist Brian Schaefer, grad for laser etching and building of the box, and Sandra Hwang '13 for the Cornell Orchestras logo!

Thank you so much for supporting our crowdfunding efforts! In just a few short days, we have reached 61% of our goal, all thanks to YOUR help! Please keep sharing crowdfunding.cornell.edu/orchestra with your friends, family, and colleagues, as we only have 11 days left to reach our goal!

We had our first rehearsal this week in Bailey Hall yesterday! In the spirit of our upcoming concert on Saturday, November 19 at 7:00PM, some of our musicians dressed up in our vibrant CSO Mahler t-shirts and *struck* a pose with our homemade hammer, built by Emilie Camera and Brian Schaefer especially for the Mahler Symphony No. 6!

Thank you to all of you who have shown your support already to our crowdfunding project -- we have officially reached over halfway of our goal of $12,500! Please keep sharing with your friends and family to spread the word -- we only have 13 days left!

A huge thank you goes out to all of our amazing supporters who have donated to our crowdfunding project! This means so much to us, and we would like to express our gratitude! Thanks to you, we are almost HALFWAY to our goal, with still more than half of the month to go! Please keep sharing our page with your friends, family and colleagues!

It's Concert Week!

As we enter mid-November, the Cornell Symphony Orchestra's second fall concert is coming up fast! Please join us on Saturday, November 19 at 7:00PM in Bailey Hall for the CSO's concert led by conductor Chris Younghoon Kim.

The CSO presents Gabriela Lena Frank’s La Centinela y la Paloma ("The Keeper and the Dove"), with soprano Jessica Rivera and poet Nilo Cruz, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 (mvts 3 and 4). Funded in part by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts for "Year of the Women."

If you cannot join us in person, you can livestream at http://www.cornell.edu/video/symphony-orchestra-concert-november-19-2016!