Bucks County Courier Times * Friday, 27 July, 2012
 

A trip along the French Riviera, a unique palate of cuisine and culture, and the chance to play music overseas. Members of the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County are experienceing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity abroad.
 
A 55-member ensemble drawn from the orchestra departed July 21 on a 10-day tour of Spain and France where they are performing four concertgs in a variety of locates. The students have an extensive list of sightseeing locations to visit while on tour, including hte beaches of the French Riviera, the Gothic quartetr of Barcelona, and the Roman ruins of Nimes and Arles in France.
Bucks County Courier Times * Friday, 11 May 2012
 
It’s an idea that surfaces every few years and on Thursday a proposal for a performing arts center at Bucks County Community College was championed once again when Joseph Hochreiter asked the Board of Trustees to approve a feasibility study for such a facility.
 
Hochreiter is the president of the board of directors for the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County, a nonprofit that provides supplemental classical music training to students across the region and uses the Newtown campus for rehearsal space and chamber ensemble performances. But with the program having grown from 60 students in one ensemble to 250 students in 11 ensembles since its founding in 1991, the search for a permanent home has become a priority in recent years.
 

Kickoff Event for YOBC's New Students in Concert Program in Bristol Township Schools

The kickoff event for YOBC’s new Students in Concert initiative will take place on Monday, October 15 at Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School in the Bristol Township School District from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The event is a celebration to welcome the students chosen for the program which begins the following week.

 

Students in Concert is sponsored by The Youth Orchestra of Bucks County, working with Keith Krelove, Music Instructor at Truman High School, and provides – at no cost to the school district – musical instruments, music scores, instructional specialists, and other support as needed to engage more students. Sixty-five students will take part in this year’s pilot program.

 

In addition to the 22-weeks of musical instruction, students will have an opportunity to work in small ensembles and some may receive private lessons. There will be performance opportunities for advanced groups. To build vision for the program, students will attend a concert by the Marine Corps Band at Patriots Theater in the Trenton War Memorial on October 27. The program will culminate with students takikng part in the two-day District Honors Band Festival in April 2013, featuring guest clinician Dr. Quincy Hilliard of the University of Lousiana

 


Bucks County Courier Times * Wednesday, 1 May  2013

I’ve had no musical education, if you don’t count the xylophone in second grade.

If you do count it, know that it wasn’t nearly enough.

It means I haven’t a clue about woodwinds, the classical violin or any notion of what it means to improvise a concerto. All of which is why I normally would have tuned out the fact that on Sunday, Grammy Award-winning classical violinist and composer Mark O’Connor will perform at the Patriot’s Theater in the Trenton War Memorial. Read the whole artilcle

Trenton Times * 3 May 2013

No matter how effortless he appears onstage, Mark O’Connor isn’t just fiddling around.

He takes music — American music — and the education of our country’s young performers very seriously.

The multi-genre, Grammy Award-winning fiddler will bring his four decades of expertise to bear, when instructing and performing with the 250 musicians of the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County this weekend.

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