The New Jersey Youth Symphony Chamber Ensembles from the United States will perform at the Cremona Solidarity Retirement Home on Tuesday, July 4, at 10.30 a.m. The program includes the opening of the Ouverture del Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi, inspired by the drama of the Jews prisoners of the Babylonians, to which the "Montgomery Variations" counterpoint inspired by civil rights movements and a moving tribute to the power of hope and faith that the African-American composer Margaret Bonds wrote in 1963 in the aftermath of the attack on the Birmingham Baptist Church in which four young girls died. The orchestra will then perform selected pieces of "Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" by Antonín Dvořák. This iconic piece, inspired by the melodies of American Indians and African-American spirituals, perfectly complements Bonds' Montgomery Variations.

The initiative is part of the thirteenth edition of the Cremona Summer Festival and the project "Heavenly Music. Itineraries between Art and Music", in collaboration with the Thursdays of the center. The Cremona Summer Festival is organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Cremona with the Institute of Musical Studies "Claudio Monteverdi", with the contribution of Regione Lombardia and with the patronage and collaboration of the Municipality of Cremona, the Consortium of Liutai "Antonio Stradivari" Cremona, the Cremona International Music Academy, the Touring Club, the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival and the Youth Orchestra Festival of Florence.
The concerts of the festival are free and subject to availability.

Helen Cha-Pyo
Born in Seoul, Helen Cha-Pyo immigrated to the United States when she was 12. He studied piano and organ in the pre-college program at the Juilliard School. He earned a Bachelor of Music in organ performance at the Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music in conducting and organ performance at the Eastman School of Music. He is often guest conductor of all state and regional festival orchestras, as well as of summer festivals including the Kinhaven School (VT) and the Arco Youth Orchestra Festival (NJ). She resides in New Jersey with her husband and two children. Actively engaged in music teaching over the past 16 years, Cha-Pyo has inspired hundreds of young musicians to perform at the highest levels, with the result that the Empire State Youth Orchestra has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading youth music organizations. As music director and director of the ESYO Youth Orchestra, Cha-Pyo regularly schedules a wide range of music spanning many different cultures. His vision led to a $100,000 grant to partially fund a music festival that commissioned nine operas (one for each ESYO ensemble) and won three prestigious ASCAP awards. He has conducted the orchestra in prestigious concert halls including Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Massry Center for the Arts, EMPAC, Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He conducted the orchestra on three international tours: in Europe in 2008, in China and South Korea in 2012, and in Portugal in 2016. Helen’s vision was instrumental in the founding of ESYO CHIME in 2015, a music education program dedicated to disadvantaged youth. From 1996 to 2002, Cha-Pyo was artistic director and conductor of the Riverside Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and associate conductor at Riverside Church in New York City. As artistic director of the Kenya Jirani Choir and the Harlem Jirani Ensemble of the Jirani Cultural Organization from 2009 to 2012, Cha-Pyo regularly visited Kenya and Korea to supervise the artistic activities. In 2011, she toured Korea with the Kenya Jirani Choir.
Beginning with the 2018-2019 season, after serving as interim conductor during the 2017-2018 season, Helen Cha-Pyo was appointed artistic director and principal conductor of the New Jersey Youth Symphony and the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts.

The New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS)
The New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) is not only an orchestra of young talents but also an educational reality of excellence in the state of New Jersey operating under the wing of Wharton Arts, an American nonprofit organization with a performing arts education program for children from the age of 4.  The idea of creating a youth symphony orchestra was born in 1979 within the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO), the oldest professional orchestra in the state of New Jersey, who entrusted George Marriner Maull with the task of leading the first group of 65 high school students, a position which Master held for 18 years. He was succeeded by Adrian Bryttan and Paul Hostetter. Since 2018, the orchestra has been conducted by Helen Cha-Pyo, also the artistic director of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts. Today, 500 students regularly study and perform in 15 different orchestras and ensembles, the most famous of which is the internationally recognized Youth Symphony. Awarded by the prestigious American Society of Composers and Authors (ASCAP) the orchestra has twice won the "Summa Cum Laude International Youth Festival and Competition "in Vienna (SCL Festival) reserved for choirs and youth musical formations. The protagonist of several tours in Europe (London, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria), is the first time that NJYS comes to Italy with a formation composed of 65 musicians aged between 15 and 18 years." We are happy and excited - explains the artistic director and principal conductor Maestro Helen Cha-Pyo - and for the guys this Italian tour is a special occasion to make known their talent and enthusiasm with which they live music and convey their message of hope and peace."