The Contemporary Youth Orchestra with Styx
by David Budin

If you’ve heard the radio ads for the Styx concert that’s kicking off the Blossom Music Center season on Thursday, May 25, you have, no doubt, gotten the impression that this is a Styx concert with something called the Contemporary Youth Orchestra backing them up. Or maybe you didn’t even hear the part about the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. Either way, you haven’t been getting the whole story.

In truth, this is a Contemporary Youth Orchestra concert and a Styx concert. It was CYO that invited Styx to play with them.

But it doesn’t really matter to either group if people come as Styx fans or a CYO fans, as long as people come to hear them. And it will be a big night for both groups. Styx has been backed up by an orchestra before, but the orchestra was there for color, to add sound to Styx’s songs.

CYO is composed of more that 100 of the top high-school-age musicians in the region. And the music they’ll be playing with Styx won’t be some schmaltzy strings, a few woodwind flourishes and occasional brass accents. CYO will be performing 21 orchestral works, built around Styx songs, that would sound like an orchestra concert even without Styx – but with the very large added bonus of Styx playing and singing the songs with them. And Styx is recording this concert for an upcoming television special.

The radio ads? Well, how many classic-rock radio listeners would flock to Blossom to hear the Contemporary Youth Orchestra? Not that they shouldn’t – most of them would definitely enjoy it. But CYO hasn’t had as many hit records.

This is CYO’s sixth-annual Rock the Orchestra concert. Previous collaborations have included guest performances by Pat Benatar, Graham Nash, Ray Manzarek (of the Doors) and Jon Anderson (of Yes). The Rock the Orchestra concert is the third of CYO’s concerts each year. Normally the other two concerts do not include rock music, though this year’s March performance featured an evening of music written or arranged by, and played with, Mike Garson, who has been David Bowie’s pianist for 33 years and has played and recorded with many other rock groups.

The nonprofit Contemporary Youth Orchestra, which rehearses and usually performs at Cleveland State University, is the first and only youth orchestra in the country dedicated exclusively to the study and performance of contemporary orchestral literature. By the end of this season, CYO’s 11th, the orchestra will have performed 42 world premieres, all with the composers present. CYO received the Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement in the Classical Music category in 2003.

In case you’re too young (or maybe too old) to remember, Styx scored 16 Top-10 hits, mostly in the late-‘70s and ‘80s, including “Lady,” “Come Sail Away,” “Renegade,” “Too Much Time On My Hands,” and “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man).” The group released its latest album, Big Bang Theory, including their most recent radio hit, a cover of the Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus,” in May 2005. Styx was the first band to have four consecutive triple-platinum albums (The Grand Illusion, Pieces Of Eight, Cornerstone, and #1 Paradise Theatre).

For more information on the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, visit http://www.cyorchestra.org. (:divend:)