Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras embrace ‘Time’ in 50th anniversary season

Opening concerts on Nov. 16 feature trumpet soloist and composer Brandon Ridenour

For five decades, the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras have engaged students from across the Fox Valley and greater Chicago area as expert noticers and explorers in music.

In its 50th anniversary season, the students of EYSO embrace past, present, and future to explore the ways “Time” shapes an audience’s experience, beginning with a series of concerts on Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Elgin Community College Arts Center.

Featuring music from the 1600s to that freshly composed today, these performances explore how our experience of time can shift our perspective.

A highlight of the November concerts is the world premiere of a new concerto by trumpet player and composer Brandon Ridenour. Titled “Past Time,” the pieces embrace EYSO’s 50th anniversary season theme, celebrating the past while also imagining the future of music.

Matthew Sheppard, artistic director and conductor of EYSO’s Youth Symphony, describes the piece as “a reflection back on past traditions and sonorities in American music.” Ridenour, he says, draws on his experience as a genre-defying artist to “integrate those Americana elements with contemporary classical repertoire.”

He goes on, “the music seamlessly incorporates a variety of styles, moods, and even compositional languages, all while maintaining thematic cohesion and narrative clarity.”

Ridenour’s own compositional style and musical interests are a perfect fit for the November concert theme, “It’s All Relative … ”

While the trumpeter/composer’s professional background matches that of many classical virtuoso musicians — he is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he now teaches in addition to the Manhattan School of Music and the New School in New York; he was the youngest ever member of the award-winning ensemble Canadian Brass; and he has won numerous competitions including the Concert Artists Guild — he is also an avid Beatles fan and regularly writes innovative arrangements of pop music. Two of those will be included on the November program.

In addition to Ridenour’s new trumpet concerto, EYSO ensembles will perform Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from “The Firebird,” music from the score to “Casablanca,” selections from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and Claude Debussy’s “Preludes,” and much more.

A collaboration through time

Ridenour’s collaboration with EYSO extends far beyond the traditional engagements of a visiting guest artist. The internationally acclaimed soloist will spend a full week in the Elgin area, coaching brass students in rehearsals, leading workshops, and connecting with music programs at local schools.

Ridenour’s new concerto is just one of two new works commissioned by EYSO this season, as well; the second, a new piece for brass ensemble and trumpet soloist, will be premiered in May 2026.

This depth of engagement reflects Ridenour’s own personal goals to develop a new educational model to build well-rounded, progressive musicians of the future. It is what makes the young composer-performer such a good fit for EYSO: his commitment to cross-disciplinary exploration.

50 years of the EYSO

Like Ridenour’s new trumpet concerto and the other music on the November concert program, EYSO today is the product of a kaleidoscopic history. The Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras were founded in 1976 as the Elgin Area Youth Orchestras under the direction of Robert Hanson, then assistant to Elgin Symphony Orchestra conductor Margaret Hillis.

What began as a small string ensemble providing opportunities for talented young musicians in the area quickly grew to encompass multiple orchestras, including a full symphony orchestra, thanks to the dedication of passionate volunteers, a distinguished roster of conductors, and students eager to make meaning out of their musical experiences.

In 1998, the organization became the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras with the appointment of Artistic Director Randal Swiggum, whose unique brand of music education and performance developed EYSO into the organization it is today.

Swiggum brought the innovative pedagogical model known as Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance to EYSO, where it became a hallmark of the organization’s programs. EYSO’s unique thematic approach to performances and pedagogy reflects this methodology, drawing extra-musical connections that ask students to think creatively and critically, while closely observing how different elements relate — a strategy called “expert noticing.”

The Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras officially incorporated as a nonprofit in 2000 under the leadership of Swiggum and EYSO’s first executive director, Kathy Matthews.

Together, the pair expanded EYSO to encompass five orchestras, a brass choir, percussion ensembles, a Chamber Music Institute, and four Honors Chamber Ensembles, educating nearly 400 students every year.

Swiggum and Matthews organized high-profile collaborations with violinists Midori and Rachel Barton Pine, performance broadcasts on WFMT and NPR’s “From the Top,” and tours to Aberdeen, Scotland and Gettysburg.

From 2000 to 2019, EYSO was recognized by the Illinois Council of Orchestras twice as Youth Orchestra of the Year and twice for Programming of the Year. Swiggum was named the ICO’s Conductor of the Year in 2008.

K. Eric Larson succeeded Kathy Matthews as executive director on her retirement in the fall of 2016, and EYSO’s present artistic director, Matthew Sheppard, took the helm in the summer of 2019.

Together, the duo made EYSO one of a small number of youth orchestras and performing arts companies to remain active through the entire COVID-19 pandemic, finding new ways to safely and authentically engage with students and music.

The organization continued to grow between 2019 and 2025, introducing a flute choir, Summer Chamber Music Camp, and the Starter Strings program to serve low-income and minority youth.

EYSO was again recognized as the Youth Orchestra of the Year (2021), for Programming of the Year (2022), for Conductor of the Year (Matthew Sheppard, 2022), and for Community Relations of the Year (2025).

See it in action

EYSO’s performances must be seen to be believed. Board member Anthony Riani will tell anyone, “You won’t believe kids are playing.”

Audiences can experience EYSO for themselves, including the world premiere performance of Brandon Ridenour’s “Past Time,” at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, in ECC’s Blizzard Theater, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

In two concerts earlier that afternoon at 1:30 and 4:30 p.m., EYSO’s younger orchestras and instrument-specific ensembles perform music from Irish folk tunes to arrangements of Claude Debussy’s “Preludes,” Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” Camille Sainte-Saëns “Samson et Dalila,” and much more.

Tickets are $27, $22 for seniors, or $7 for students. For more information about the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras and tickets, visit EYSO.org or call the ECC box office at (847) 622-0300.

All concerts will have free livestreams available on the EYSO YouTube channel.

Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras is an In-Residence Ensemble of Elgin Community College.