The Score | Youth to the Fore

It has been a tough year for young musicians to perform and rehearse together, due to the pandemic. In 2020-21, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra presented a virtual version of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on YouTube, in place of its annual Peter and the Wolf at Symphony Hall. This fall, the BYSO began rehearsing in person with Music Director Federico Cortese (above left), and in November they returned to Symphony Hall, live and in person, for Peter and the Wolf, led by Cortese and narrated by Genevieve Lefevre, a 2020 Harvard College graduate and previous BYSO violist. All audience members were required to present proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, and CDC-approved masks were mandatory. In Ohio, schoolchildren filled Lima’s Crouse Performance Hall this fall (above right) for the Lima Symphony Orchestra’s “M is for Music,” a young people’s concert in which Music Director Andrew Crust and actress Mary Jane Pories introduced students to classical music. “You see the kids come in, and they don’t know what to expect,” said Lima Symphony Executive Director Elizabeth Brown-Ellis. “But they’re up and dancing, they’re hearing music that they recognize, and music that makes them feel something, and they just love it.”