Musical Arts Youth Orchestra

The MusicAL Arts Youth Orchestra (MAYO) is a regional Youth Music organization offering programs in orchestra, chamber music and jazz to young musicians in ten-plus counties of south-central Indiana. The organization is based in the city of Bloomington, Indiana.

MAYO is a project of the Southern Indiana Youth Symphony, Inc., which was founded in 2000 by a group of interested parents headed by Kristen Bellisario. The founding music director of the group was James Johnston, then serving as assistant conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony. Johnston was followed by Carl Kling, currently director of bands at Northwest Missouri State University, and by Kelly Corcoran, currently assistant conductor of the Nashville (TN) Symphony.

The MAYO project began in the 2003-2004 season, with Darko Butorac as music director. (Mr. Butorac went on to become director of orchestras at Northern Arizona State University and is now also music director of the Missoula (MT) Symphony.) The orchestra began with a small, devoted group of students from local middle and high schools, augmented by students from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. By MAYO's second year, with Thomas Loewenheim at the helm, the orchestra was growing, jumping from a core group of AbOUT 25 to a core group of 60 in short order. With Dr. Loewenheim's departure for a professorship at Fresno State in 2007, violinist/conductor Jose Valenciastepped in as MAYO Music Director. Mr. Valencia, who is also the music director of the Kokomo (IN) Symphony and the innovative Orkestra Projekt, in Indianapolis, begins his second year with MAYO during the 2008-2009 season.

One of the signature events associated with MAYO is the iMAYO International Youth Orchestra Festival, which was initiated by Thomas Loewenheim in 2006. iMAYO has brought students from Hong Kong, Israel, France, and Germany to Bloomington to rehearse with the MAYO orchestra (augmented by members of the Indiana University String Academy), attend master classes with IU Jacobs School of Music professors, and perform in a final gala concert at the Indiana University Auditorium. iMAYO 2009 is scheduled for April 12-20, 2009.

For more information about MAYO, visit the website at www.mayomusic.org.

See also the List of youth orchestras in the United States.