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The Tulsa Youth Symphony celebrates 46 years of inspiring young musicians.
As Jeff Cowen headed to his first chamber music rehearsal at the North Carolina School of the Arts nearly 30 years ago, he worried he wouldn’t be good enough.
The other musicians assigned to his septet were talented, and he says he wasn’t sure he could hold his own.
“These players were amazing,” says Cowen, now a speech pathologist in Tulsa. “I thought, ‘Holy crap, what am I doing here?’”
Fortunately for Cowen, he had four years of experience with the Tulsa Youth Symphony.
“I didn’t realize until then what the program had done for me,” says Cowen, who played viola in the symphony from 1978 to ’82. “The youth symphony gave me the experience that I needed to play on a high level in a chamber-music setting.”
And that’s not all. Cowen says the experience working with other talented musicians gave him so much more.
“It gave me skills for listening to the people around me,” he says. “I have always cherished that.”
Now, his son, Ben, plays trumpet in the symphony under the same conductor, Ron Wheeler.
“It’s hard to believe that my son is playing under the direction of ‘Wheels,’ as we used to affectionately call him,” Cowen says.
The youth symphony is celebrating its 46th anniversary this season. Wheeler, who has served as conductor since 1972, says the symphony “brings together the best students from all surrounding programs.”
A majority of the students come from Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow and Jenks, but Wheeler says he works with students from as far away as Bartlesville, Miami and Stroud.
“We traditionally say that over 1,000 students have gone through our program,” Wheeler says.
Of the up to 300 students who audition, only 150 are accepted each year, he says.
The students, ages 10 to 18, participate in one of the program’s two orchestras, the symphony and the concert orchestra, both of which perform three formal concerts each season.
Additionally, students are required to participate in their school orchestra or band program, if available. When that is not an option, students must take private lessons, Wheeler says.
The youth symphony plays standard orchestral literature just like any professional orchestra would, Wheeler says. The concert orchestra, whose members tend to be younger and less experienced, play standard literature. Either way, students are exposed to music they wouldn’t otherwise perform in a public school band or orchestra.
“We play much more challenging music,” Wheeler says.
That challenge is what got violinist Ian Jett interested in joining.
“I was playing with an OK orchestra, but it wasn’t pushing me quite as much as I would like it to,” says Jett, a junior at Union High School.
He first heard the youth symphony perform during one of its informal concerts at Woodland Hills Mall. The music was “absolutely incredible,” he says.
“I was thinking if I could get in this, I would improve so much,” Jett says.
And improve he did. Jett went from being one of the lower chairs in the orchestra at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute to being a soloist.
That kind of improvement takes work. Jett says he practices for three or four hours a day.
“It is difficult to get in at first,” Jett says. “But you progress so much that first year.”
The youth symphony’s first concert is Oct. 11.
Concert dates
Children’s Concert — Oct. 11
Holiday Concert — Dec. 7
Alumni Concert — Feb. 15
Play-a-thon Concert — Feb. 28
Spring Serenade — May 3
