Do You Want to Learn More About Our Orchestras and Jazz Ensembles?
What’s Happening
TYJE Members Excel at Carolina Jazz Festival
For many musicians, competitions can be extremely motivating. Sometimes it may be the prizes that motivate our practice. Other times, it might be the opportunity to showcase our work that pushes us to excel. This year, in hopes of inspiring young jazz musicians to continue pursuing their talents despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the Carolina Jazz Festival hosted a Solo Performance Competition for high school jazz students of all experience levels as part of their three day event. Students were invited to submit videos of themselves performing with a backing track to be considered for one of several
Sterling Elliott Wins Talent Hunt
The Philharmonic Association is proud to share the news that Sterling Elliott has been chosen as the 2021 first place winner of the Talent Hunt conducted by the Xi Mu Mu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi, Inc. Sterling is a junior at Rolesville High and is a member of the Triangle Youth Philharmonic and the United Strings of Color quartet. He recorded Ernest Bloch’s “Meditation” for this year’s virtual competition. He studies viola with Margaret and Hugh Partridge. The Talent Hunt was created in 1945, with the first District Talent Hunt Program held in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 19th,
PA Conductors at Central Region Jazz Clinic
We invite conductors onto our staff based on their passion for music, valuable knowledge, and their teaching ability, so it is no surprise to find that Philharmonic Association conductors are asked to teach and perform outside of our organization as well. For example, we were excited to hear that TYJO Director Lisa Burn and TYJB Director Kobie Watkins were recently invited to serve as clinicians for the Central Region Jazz Clinic, a day of jazz masterclasses offered to musicians selected for the All Region Band. Lisa served as the Middle School Trumpet clinician while Kobie presented a Drum masterclass. It was, of course, a
Starting 2021 Off Strong!
The Philharmonic Association has kicked 2021 off with some fun changes to our usual spring programming! Since cold temperatures prevent our ensembles from rehearsing outdoors for the beginning of the year, we decided to take a break from Zoom rehearsals and offer our members virtual classes on a variety of musical topics this month. The topics include composing and conducting, improvisation, career paths in music, film scoring, and the music of Respighi. These classes are all chosen and led by our Artistic Staff. Although our musicians are only required to attend one, many students are attending several of the offerings. Our 2020-21 season
DATE CHANGE for PA FUNd-Raiser!
Listen up! The date of the Philharmonic Association's Live-Stream Fundraising Event has been CHANGED! The event will now take place on Friday, March 19th at 5pm. To learn more about this year's fundraiser, continue reading. For our 2020-21 fundraiser, we are doing something a little different than previous years. In order to design an event that is both fun AND safe, our organization had to get creative. Now, it’s YOUR turn!! As a musician in the PA, you are invited to submit a video of an unedited musical performance for this year’s FUNd-Raiser called PA’s Got Talent! Create and submit
PA Musician Wins YoungArts Award 2021
At the Philharmonic Association, we look forward to celebrating our musicians' successes. We are excited to announce a particularly impressive accomplishment made by one of our saxophonists in TYJE, Zebedee Jewell-Alibhai, who has been selected for the 2021 YoungArts Award! As the winner of this award, Zebedee is recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation as one of “659 of the most accomplished young visual, literary and performing artists from across the country.” Less than 10% of all the 15-18 year old artists who participate in YoungArt’s prestigious competition are selected as YoungArts winners at the completion of the blind adjudication process. As a YoungArts winner,
Expanding the Horizons of Young Musicians
The mission of the Philharmonic Association is to educate the next generation in great classical and jazz music through ensemble performance, while encouraging appreciation, community participation, and support of these activities.

Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble
Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble
The Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (TYJE) is now based in Raleigh under the direction of Dr. Gregg Gelb.
Ways You Can Contribute to Our Growth
Here’s What Our Reviewers Say

The best of the area’s young musicians, participants in the Triangle Youth Philharmonic and the Triangle Youth Symphony…

There are lots of reasons to support the youth orchestras of the Philharmonic Association. The most important is that they give first-rate performances. A close second is that the young musicians of TYP, TYS and TYO are the classical musicians of the future, the pros, semi-pros, and amateurs who will continue to maintain the classical tradition……they comprise the cream of the crop. This is not little league; they play hardball, and they play it well.

[TYP and TYS] do much more than train musicians. They teach a lifelong appreciation and love of music. One alum recently submitted a piece for the Philharmonic Association News entitled: “Music Keeps Me Sane.” Playing with TYP taught her commitment and about setting standards.

There’s hope for our collective musical future, thanks to the Triangle Youth Philharmonic and similar ensembles. The 250 or so young artists involved in the PA’s programs merit our attention and support. Their love of music and delight in the teamwork required to create it was evident in every measure.