Shaping the future of young musicians.
Who We Are
The Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras are committed to supporting the lives of young musicians and their families through professional and enriching rehearsals and performances. We are here to serve and inspire the passionate music-makers of central Ohio and elevate our community through musical excellence and innovation.
Ensembles
Central Ohio’s aspiring young instrumentalists in grades 9-12 perform in this ensemble directed by Assistant Conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Elias Miller. The 90-member orchestra has students from 19 high schools in nine counties. Members are selected through a competitive audition process held annually in May. The Youth Orchestra also benefits from a close relationship with the Columbus Symphony through its CSO Cohort Musicians who are principal and section members of the Columbus Symphony who work as coaches throughout their season.
The ensemble rehearses on Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The annual tuition cost for the Youth Orchestra is $555. Financial Aid and payment plans are available for each of our ensembles upon request.
Instructors
Elias Miller has established a reputation as a leading young conductor and orchestra builder. He has worked with numerous orchestras across the United States including the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony, assisting notable conductors such as Giancarlo Guerrero, Juanjo Mena, JoAnn Falletta, Scott Yoo, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Eun Sun Kim, Paul McCreesh, Christoph König, Gemma New, Ruth Reinhardt, Erina Yashima, and David Alan Miller.
Miller made his Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 2023 guest conducting the New York International Symphony Orchestra. His other 2023-24 and Summer 2024 engagements included work as a cover conductor with the Nashville Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra, 7 masterworks orchestra programs with the Apollo Ensemble, and concerts at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, where Miller served as Assistant Conductor.
An active conductor of opera and oratorio, Miller conducted Festival Theater Hudson’s inaugural performance: a staged production of Wagner’s Die Walküre (Act I) in 2021 and co-conducted a production of Philip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête, at the University of Houston’s Moores Opera Center in 2022. Between 2016 and 2019, Miller led the Harvard Early Music Society in several premieres of operatic works. These productions included the Boston premiere of J.A. Hasse’s Alcide al Bivio in collaboration with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the North American premiere of Telemann’s 1745 Johannespassion, a production that featured famed countertenor Charles Humphries and earned Miller an enthusiastic preview in the Boston Globe, and the North American premiere of J.A. Hasse’s Sanctus Petrus et Sancta Maria Magdalena. Miller has also conducted performances of operas by Gluck (Orfeo ed Euridice, Independent Opera Production), Stravinsky (The Rake’s Progress, Harvard College Opera), William Grant Still (Minette Fontaine, Act II, Graduate Students at the University of Michigan), and Gilbert & Sullivan (Ruddigore, Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players). Other ensembles he has conducted in the past include the Pro Arte Orchester in Vienna, Austria, the Hudson Festival Orchestra, the University of Michigan’s Symphony, Philharmonia, and Campus orchestras, the Ann Arbor Camerata, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Chamber Players, The Weston Wind Quintet & Friends, the Medomak Festival Orchestra, and the Chromos Collaborative Orchestra. Miller has also served as the assistant conductor for Opera Saratoga, the Boston Chamber Symphony, and the Orchestra Book Club.
A distinguished pianist and cellist, Miller has performed solo recitals in the United States and in Europe on both instruments and has served as a vocal coach and rehearsal pianist for many operatic productions. He holds degrees from Harvard University (A.B. in Music, summa cum laude) and the University of Michigan (M.M. in Orchestral Conducting) and completed his postgraduate studies at the University for Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Miller’s teachers and mentors include Mark Stringer, Scott Yoo, Kenneth Kiesler, Federico Cortese, and his father, David Alan Miller.
The essential goal of the Repertory Orchestra is to emphasize the performance of traditional orchestral literature. The full, symphonic orchestra performs advanced, unabridged classical works that expand the performance capabilities of its musicians. The ensemble is under the direction of Dr. Mark Sholl and Assistant Conductor Dr. Jim Bates are is comprised of students in grades 7-10. The Repertory Orchestra also benefits from a close relationship with the Columbus Symphony through its CSO Cohort Musicians who are principal and section members of the Columbus Symphony who work as coaches throughout their season.
The ensemble rehearses Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9:15 p.m. and typically performs four times a season at various locations around central Ohio. The annual tuition cost for the Repertory Orchestra is $525.
Financial Aid and payment plans are available for each of our ensembles upon request.
Instructors
Dr. Mark Sholl is the performing arts coordinator for the Hilliard City Schools. His responsibilities include overseeing the music budget and staffing for 13 elementary schools, two 6th grade schools, three middle schools and three high schools.
Dr. Sholl is also the past president of the Ohio Orchestra and String Teachers Association. He currently serves on the board of the Hilliard Arts Council, and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra Board where he is their Education Committee Chair. Prior to his tenure as Performing Arts Coordinator with the Hilliard Schools, Dr. Sholl was the Orchestra Director at Hilliard Davidson High School for 24 years where he took the orchestras to multiple National and State Conferences – including the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago, two European tours, and a tour of Canada.
Before going to Hilliard, he was the Orchestra and Assistant Band Director at Grove City High School for six years, where he won the National Sallie Mae Teaching Award. Dr. Sholl has also conducted numerous ensembles at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In 2011, he received the Ohio Music Education Association Outstanding Music Teacher of the Year award. He has studied at The Peabody Conservatory, The University of Michigan, where he received a Bachelor of Music, and The Ohio State University from which he received his Master of Arts and PhD.
Dr. Jim Bates is Director of Orchestral Activities at Otterbein University and since 2006 has served as an assistant conductor for the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras.
As a conductor and teacher, Dr. Bates is able to draw on considerable experience as an educator, performer and historian. For eighteen years he was a conductor for the Louisville (KY) Youth Orchestras and was music director of that organization from 1996 – 2001. In 1999, he joined the conducting staff of Interlochen Center for the Arts and continues to co-direct the Junior Orchestra program and Junior String Institute there in the summer. He has served as a clinician or guest conductor in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, California, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington and Colorado. He has served as president of Kentucky ASTA and as string coordinator for the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts. In addition to string education he is very involved with the Classical Mandolin Society of America and period instrument performance. He was recently elected to the National Board of Directors of CMSA.
Currently, Dr. Bates is assistant conductor and principal bassist of the Westerville Symphony (OH), and is a member of The Early Interval, Columbus’ professional early music performance ensemble. He has degrees from the University of Louisville (B.M.E.), a Masters in double bass performance from Indiana University, where he studied bass with Lawrence Hurst and baroque performance with Stanley Ritchie, and a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Bates has two sons, Ethan and Gideon. Dr. Bates was recently appointed to chair the Coda Bows for America Community Outreach Program for ASTA.
The Chamber Strings Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Robert Gillespie, is composed of talented string players in grades 6-9. Chamber Strings rehearses at The Ohio State University School of Music on Tuesday afternoons from 4:30-6:30 pm. The annual tuition cost for Chamber Strings is $495.
Financial Aid and payment plans are available for each of our ensembles upon request.
Instructors
Robert Gillespie, violinist and professor, was responsible for string teacher training in the School of Music until his retirement. Ohio State has one of the largest and most extensive string pedagogy degree programs in the nation. Under Gillespie’s leadership, Ohio State received the 2015 ASTA Institutional Leadership Award as the premier string education university in the country.
Gillespie is a past national President of the American String Teachers Association. He is a frequent guest conductor of All-State, region and festival orchestras. Gillespie has appeared in 47 states, Canada, Asia and throughout Europe. He is co-author of the Hal Leonard string method book series, Essential Elements for Strings, the leading string instrument teaching series in the country with sales of over ten million copies. Also, he is co-author of the college text Strategies for Teaching Strings: Building A Successful School Orchestra Program, the Strings Clinics to GoDVD series, and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra texts for GIA publications. He received the Distinguished Scholar award for 2002–2003 in the School of Music at Ohio State University.
In summers, Gillespie directs the Ohio State String Teacher Workshop, the largest string/orchestra teacher-training workshop in the country. In Columbus, he has conducts the Columbus Symphony Chamber Strings Youth Orchestra and has performed in the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. Gillespie has given string pedagogy and research presentations and conducted orchestra performances in Ohio, Maine, Louisiana, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Alabama, Missouri, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida and Oregon. He has worked with students and teachers throughout the United States, including a 9-day teaching residency in Switzerland. In addition, he has conducted concerts in LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall.
Under the direction of Sara Given, Junior Strings encourages the technical and musical development of young string players in grades 3-7 throughout central Ohio. Since 2003, the orchestra has been designed to foster the growth and development of string and orchestral experiences for young people in central Ohio.
Junior Strings rehearses on Wednesday afternoons from 4:45 pm-6:00 pm, and performs about 3 times per season. The annual tuition cost for Junior Strings is $465. Financial Aid and payment plans are available for each of our ensembles upon request.
Instructors
Sara Given teaches middle and high school orchestra with the Hilliard City Schools. Previously, Ms.Given worked in the New Albany-Plain Local and Centerville City Schools and served as Master Teacher for The Ohio State University String Project.
Ms.Given earned her Master’s Degree in String Music Education with an emphasis in String Pedagogy from The Ohio State University. She earned her undergraduate degree in Instrumental Music Education from Ohio University.
As a frequent guest conductor and clinician, Sara has presented clinics for The National Association for Music Education, The American String Teachers Association, The Ohio Music Educators Association, and The Midwest String Teachers Workshop. Her work has been published in The Triad Journal for Music Education and Strings Magazine. In the summer, Sara serves on the Junior Orchestras conducting staff at The Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Have a question or want to learn more? Contact Education Programs Coordinator, Nia Dewberry ndewberry@columbussymphony.com | 614.221.5171
