GWYOA 2019-2020: A Remembrance
By Richard Cuneo
March 11, 2021
As it has every year since the late 1950s, the Greater Westchester Youth Orchestras Association began a new season in September of 2019 with an excited and exceedingly talented group of young musicians gathering to rehearse. Led by three conductors with decades of combined classical music experience, the GWYOA orchestras set their sights on the first major concerts of the 2019/2020 season: the 2019 Winter Concert, and the 2020 Lewis-Lionti Sonata Concert.
Meeting weekly at the Valhalla campus of Westchester Community College (WCC) – which was the long-time home of the GWYOA – the three orchestras got right to work, essentially sight-reading at a first rehearsal on September 9. From there, the 200+ musicians that made up the Elementary Strings, Junior Strings, and Youth Symphony, moved through a series of 13 intense rehearsals. Their final practice, on December 9, saw three performance-ready orchestras that were eager to take the stage for a concert. And on December 15, 2019, they did exactly that, thrilling a sold-out Winter Concert audience at WCC's Hankin Academic Arts Building with works by composers including Mozart, Corelli, Bartok, Verdi, Wagner, Sibelius, Shostakovich, and Gershwin.
After a short holiday break, the orchestras gathered at WCC once again on January 6, 2020, and on January 13, the Youth Symphony held its annual Lewis-Lionti Sonata Concert. At this event, the orchestra performance was combined with solo performances from Senior Youth Symphony members, who treated the audience to works by Massenet, Paganini, Mozart, Charlier, and Mendelssohn. The day before that performance, the World Health Organization (WHO) released information about a novel coronavirus outbreak that had originated at a seafood market in Wuhan, China. As reported by the WHO that day, there was "no infection among healthcare workers, and no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission."
Behind the scenes, the volunteer Board of Directors for the GWYOA was hard at work, organizing the weekly rehearsal process, overseeing seating auditions, managing the finances of the organization, and planning for the major event of every season – the Spring Gala Concert at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall.
On January 27, as the three orchestras continued the rehearsal process, taking on a new set of pieces by the likes of Handel, Respighi, Berlioz, and Havorsen (to name but a few) and with the Spring Gala always in their minds. In the few weeks since the WHO announcement, the coronavirus had become a larger event. On the same day as the rehearsal, CNN reported that more than 2,700 cases had been confirmed in mainland China and 82 people had died. As well, there were more than 50 confirmed cases in 13 places outside of mainland China, including at least five in the United States. Based on that news, the GWYOA Board started taking actions to assure the safety of the musicians during rehearsal. Still, as detailed by ABC News, "The U.S. had faced a variety of infectious diseases in recent decades – SARS, MERS, avian flu, Zika, Ebola and others – and it was unclear how this new coronavirus would be notably different."
Throughout the month of February, all three orchestras continued to rehearse weekly at the WCC, while the GWYOA Board monitored health guidance coming from state and federal authorities. Based on that guidance, the Board continued to plan for the completion of the season and a successful Spring Gala. In March, however, that process came to a pause.
On March 9, CNN reported that the novel coronavirus, now more frequently referred to as COVID-19, had infected more than 108,000 people around the world and killed more than 3,800. And on March 13, the WCC announced that it would close its facilities for two weeks in order to help control the spread of the virus. That same day, then-President Trump declared a national emergency so as to free up federal resources. According to CNN, the U.S. now had 1,596 cases in 47 states and the District of Columbia, and 41 people had died. During what was believed to be only a short break, the GWYOA Board met regularly to navigate the organization through the growing crisis.
But on April 3, the Board received news that forever changed the organization.
On that day, Vincent Lionti, the conductor of the Youth Symphony, passed away from complications related to COVID-19. Vincent's career with GWYOA began when he was only 12 years old (as an orchestra musician playing under his father, Victor, who conducted the Youth Symphony for 27 years). Vincent led the Junior Strings from 1993-1997 and became the conductor of the Youth Symphony in 1997. Faced with the growing global health crisis and with enormous grief at the loss of Vincent, the Board made the unanimous decision on April 21, 2020, to cancel the remaining 2019/2020 season. While still processing the loss of a dear friend and cherished colleague, the Board began creating a series of tributes to Vincent while also acknowledging the Senior Youth Symphony musicians who had their final year with the GWYOA so unexpectedly cut short.
While there were no additional formal events in the 2019/2020 season, the Board forged on with plans for future seasons. Always looking to exceed government health and safety guidelines, the Board managed to virtually re-organize the remaining GWYOA musicians, audition new musicians, and plan for a virtual 2020/2021 season that all hope will evolve into a more-traditional "live" series of events.
While the GWYOA has been tremendously impacted by the pandemic, the Board remains committed to developing young people's musicianship through rehearsing and performing together; helping students develop self-esteem; and promoting harmony in our ethnically diverse community through training in classical music.
