HCYO

The High School Gifted and Talented Orchestra has been renamed the Howard County Youth Orchestra. The orchestra got their start as the Howard Regional Youth Orchestra over a quarter century ago.  One of Maryland's premier youth orchestras, the HCYO has performed at New York's Carnegie Hall, Washington, DC's Kennedy Center, The Midwest Clinic in Chicago, and Baltimore's Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. In 2019, we shared the stage with TwoSet Violin for two incredible concerts and in 2022, we had the distinct pleasure of performing with Time for Three.

Auditions for the 2024-2025 season will be held on May 6th, 8th, and 9th, 2024 at Reservoir High School

NOI Side by side

• Thursday, June 20th - 2pm-5pm - River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Friday, June 21st - 2pm-5pm - River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Saturday, June 22nd - 9:00am-9:00pm - University of Maryland, College Park

Concert 1

• Tuesday, August 27th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, September 3rd - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, September 10th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, September 17th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, September 24th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, October 1st - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, October 8th - 7:00pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, October 15th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, October 22nd- 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, October 29th - 6:30pm-9:30pm Reservoir Rehearsal Room

• Saturday, November 9th - 10am-2pm - Dress Rehearsal with UMD Chamber Singers - University of Maryland, College Park - Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

• Sunday, November 10th - Concert with UMD Chamber Singers - 7:30pm, 6pm call - University of Maryland, College Park - Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

• Tuesday, November 12th - 6:30pm-9:30pm Reservoir Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, November 19th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, December 3rd - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Sunday, December 8th - Concert - 2:00 pm (11am call) - Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake HS

• Tuesday, February 25th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, March 4th - 6:30pm-9:30pm Reservoir Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, March 11th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, March 18th - 6:30pm-9:30pm Reservoir Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, March 25th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, April 1st- 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, April 8th - 6:30pm-9:30pm Reservoir Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, April 22nd- 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, April 29th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Tuesday, May 6th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Monday, May 12th - 6:30pm-9:30pm River Hill Rehearsal Room

• Saturday, May 17th - Concert - 2:00 pm (11am call) - Jim Rouse Theatre

HSGTO Concert Attire
*All orchestra members are required to wear formal attire for all performances*
Below are three choices. Choose the option with which you are most comfortable:
1. Tuxedo or black suit jacket and black slacks (no jeans or khaki pants), white button shirt, black bow tie, black dress shoes and long black socks.
2. Long black dress with black shoes. The dress doesn’t have to be long sleeved, but elbow length, 3/4, or long sleeves are preferred.
3. Black slacks (no jeans) and a black dress shirt/blouse (3/4 or long sleeved) with black shoes and long black socks/hose.

HSGTO Attendance Policy

We strive to create an orchestral experience for our students that is musically rewarding and challenging.  In order to achieve this, it is important for all involved to exhibit commitment to rehearsal attendance, integrity in music preparation, and proper rehearsal etiquette.  With this in mind, we would like to provide a clear attendance policy to ensure a success for the orchestra as a whole.

1. Attendance for all rehearsals and concerts is mandatory.

2. Students will be permitted one excused rehearsal absence per concert. All excused absences must be communicated by email to directors@hocoyo.org and approved by the directors at least two weeks in advance of the absence (except for sickness and emergencies). Absences due to illness must be communicated before 3pm on the day of the rehearsal.

3. Excused absences may include the following: college visits, school concerts, athletic games (not practices), school Spring trips.

4. All other absences are unexcused, including: Social activities, school homework/projects, studying for tests, etc.

5. After any absence, students may be required to play for the directors before the next rehearsal at 6:00PM.

6. After one excused absence per concert or after ANY unexcused absence, the student’s participation in HCYO will be subject to review by the directors.

It is our expectation that all students will abide by these guidelines, thus creating a more positive and productive musical experience for everyone. 

Concerto Competition

Reservoir HS Auditorium - Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 3pm-7pm

Eligibility: All students that are current members of HCYO are eligible to compete in the concerto competition. Students may compete using the instrument with which they perform in the ensemble or another instrument included on the repertoire list (including piano).

Fee: A fee of $35 is required to participate in the competition. This must be submitted in the form of a check made payable to HCPSS.

Prize: The winning students will receive the opportunity to perform their solo during our concert on May 17, 2025 with HCYO. There will be one winner.

Sign-up: Students interested in participating must return the completed application form by November 12th with the accompanying $35 check made payable to HCPSS.

Accompanist: All students will be required to bring an accompanist to the audition excepts for pianists, who have the option to audition unaccompanied.

PDF: Repertoire List | Application

Repertoire: Students must perform a selection taken from the repertoire list. Students only need to play one movement of the selected piece. If a student is considering a piece that is not listed but feels that the piece would be an appropriate addition to the list, they must submit by email the name, composer, and publisher of the piece to the directors for approval. All submissions to the repertoire list must be made by October 29th and must be approved before they can be placed on the application form. If you are choosing a piece not on the repertoire list, please follow this criteria: 

Please choose works originally published before 1924 if possible. This means that the work will most likely be in the public domain, and the orchestral parts will be available for purchase, or already in the public domain. Works published after 1924 may be approved if limited repertoire has been composed for the student’s instrument. 

Please consider the ending of the movement you are selecting, and choose a movement with a concert ending. Endings that may not work are ones that run attacca into the next movement, for example. 

Please choose a movement from the concerto with maximum duration of 15 minutes.

Please consider the orchestral instrumentation of the piece you wish to perform.

Past Seasons

Click on some images to hear recordings.

2023-2024

• Ranaan Meyer: Concerto for My Family

• Jessie Montgomery: Coincident Dances

• Copland: Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo

• Bolcom/Primatic: Graceful Ghost Rag

• Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

• Prokofiev: 2nd Suite from Romeo and Juliet

• Brahms: Academic Festival Overture

• Kabalevsky: Cello Concerto #1, Yehji Hwang - Cello

• Shostakovich: Symphony #5

• Tank and the Bangas at Merriweather

2022-2023

• Tchaikovsky: Symphony #4, Finale

• Beethoven: Symphony #6

• Moncayo: Huapango

• Borodin: Polovetsian Dances from Prince Igor

• Guster at Merriweather

2021-2022

• Hisaishi: Howl’s Moving Castle

• Hisaishi: Totoro

• Back to the Future

• Chronicles of Narnia

• John Williams: Star Wars Suite

• Time for Three
  

2019 - 2020

• Sibelius: Finlandia

• Copland: Our Town

• Saint-Saëns: Danse Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah

• Mozart: Symphony #35, 1st mvt.

• Holst: The Planets, I. Mars, II. Venus, III. Mercury, IV. Jupiter

2018 - 2019

• Marquez: Danzon #2

• TwoSet Violin

• Strauss: Feierlicher Einzug

• Mozart: Don Giovanni Overture

• Vaughan Williams: English Folk Song Suite

• Delius: The Walk to Paradise Garden

• Shostakovich: Ballet Suite No. 1

• Verdi: Nabucco Overture

• Tchaikovsky: Symphony #5, 4th mvt.

• Sibelius: Symphony #2

• Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

2017 - 2018

• Kabalevsky: Overture to Colas Breugnon

• Dvorak: Symphony #9, from the New World

• Ginastera: Estancia

• Rossini: La Scala di Seta Overture

• Stravinsky: The Firebird (1919)

• Weber: Oberon Overture

• Rachmaninoff: Symphony #2, 1st and 4th mvts.

• John Mackey: Mass

• Leonard Bernstein: Overture to Candide

• Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto, op. 54 in a minor, 1st mvt. Gloria Cai, piano

• Walter Piston: The Incredible Flutist

2016-2017

• Copland: Buckaroo Holiday and Hoedown from Rodeo

• Rossini: William Tell

• Berlioz: Rakoczi March

• Faure: Requiem

• Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture

• Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

• Gershwin: Cuban Overture

• Mozart: Overture to the Marriage of Figaro

• Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet

• Shostakovich: Symphony #5, 1st and 4th mvts.

• Dvorak: Carnival Overture

• Copland: Clarinet Concerto (Madelyn Armes, Clarinet)

• Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis

2015 - 2016

• Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite

• Borodin: Symphony #2

• Borodin: Polovetsian Dances

• Beethoven: Symphony #5, 3rd and 4th mvts.

• Wagner: Die Meistersinger Overture

• Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnole

• Prokofiev: Symphony #7

• Saint-Saens: Bacchanale from Samson and Delila

• Grieg: Piano Concerto

2010-2011

2009-2010

2008-2009

2006-2007

2004-2005

2002-2003

Directors

Ben Denne

Ben Denne is a graduate of Northwestern University where he studied Euphonium performance with Rex Martin and conducting with Mallory Thompson and John Paynter. He received a bachelor of music degree with an emphasis in both performance and education. He received his masters' degree in music education from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mr. Denne has directed the orchestra program at Ellicott Mills MS since 1998.   In that time, the orchestra has grown from a small group of 4 violinists to a program that currently reaches ~170 students in four orchestras.  Mr. Denne is a frequent guest conductor around the state of Maryland, where he has conducted county middle-school and high-school honor groups.  He has also served on adjudication and assessment panels for Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford, and Montgomery Counties.  He has had a place on the music leadership team in Howard County for 8 years and has worked on many curriculum writing teams over the past 18 years.

A conductor of the Howard County High School Gifted and Talented Orchestra (formerly the Howard Regional Youth Orchestra) since 2002, Mr. Denne has taken students to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Midwest Clinic, and most recently the Kennedy Center, where the orchestra performed a side-by-side concert with the top student orchestra from Beijing, China.

For 10 years, Mr. Denne also served as the director of the Howard High School orchestra, adding a second orchestra and doubling the number of students reached in the program.  The Howard High Orchestras and Mr. Denne were awarded recognition and won competitions for performances in Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Virginia Beach, and Myrtle Beach.

Ben maintains a small studio of private students on euphonium, trombone, and tuba, and performs with Butte and Friends and One Flight Up on trombone.  He resides in Columbia, MD with his wife Beth, daughter Katie, and puppy Rio.

Colin o'Bryan

Colin O’Bryan has been an educator in Howard County Public Schools since 2000.  A graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Double Bass Performance, Mr. O’Bryan has previously been the Orchestra Director at Atholton, Howard, and Mount Hebron High Schools in Howard County Maryland.  He is currently the Orchestra Director at Reservoir High School, where he also teaches Music Theory I and  Theory II AP.  In addition, Mr. O’Bryan has served as Director of the Howard County Gifted and Talented Orchestra, Howard County Repertory Orchestra, Baltimore County Middle School GT Orchestra and the Southern Maryland All County Orchestra.  Mr. O’Bryan also served on the review and appointment panel for the position of Conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra.   As a bassist, Mr. O’Bryan has served as a clinician with the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra, and the New York String Teachers Association Summer String Institute at Ithaca College.  He has also been an adjudicator for various county and state festivals and assessments.  Colin has been a part of Bassworks since its inception, and serves as director of one of its many chamber groups.

Tim McKay

Tim McKay has been the percussion coach for the youth orchestra organization since 2007. He currently serves on faculty at Howard Community College where he teaches applied percussion lessons and maintains a strong private teaching studio through HCC's Music Institute program. Many of his students have performed in county and state-level ensembles, prestigious national music festivals, and have been accepted into the leading music schools and conservatories across the country. He is the director of the Drummin' Dragons Summer Percussion Camp, and is a former recipient of HCC’s Adjunct Faculty of the Year award.

Mr. McKay is an active freelance performer and enjoys his myriad of playing opportunities - everything from accompanying local choirs and musical theater, to classical and contemporary music. He performs most often with the Apollo Orchestra. Notable performances include Christopher Rouse's percussion concerto Der geretette Alberich with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and PBS's A Capitol Fourth celebration on the National Mall with American Idol winner Phillip Phillips.

Mr. McKay holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM) and the University of Maryland (MM). In addition to music, Mr. McKay enjoys homeschooling his kids, coaching his son’s baseball team, and baking artisan bread. He resides in Columbia with his with his wife, Amanda, and children Isabelle and Zach. In his spare time you can find Mr. McKay hiking and camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains and biking the back roads of Howard County.

Contact Us

Please contact us if you have any questions about the orchestra.

hCPSS Music Office

5451 Beaverkill Road
Columbia, MD, 21044