 he Long Island Youth Orchestra was founded by its present director, Martin Dreiwitz 45 years ago. The orchestra held its first rehearsal in the cafeteria of the Willets Road School in Roslyn Heights in September of 1962. The formation of this 57 member ensemble, then known as the North Shore Youth Orchestra, was both an innovation and an experiment. The New York area had no permanent youth orchestras at that time and indeed there were but a handful in the entire nation. Today the nation boasts of over 150. Certainly no one |  | could have predicted then that LIYO membership would have grown to over 100 members - that the orchestra would have made 35 concert tours to the far corners of the globe - that it would have more than 2,500 alumni many whom play in some of the nation's finest orchestras or teach in schools throughout the area and country - or indeed that it would still be serving the talented musical youth of Long Island on a regular basis 45 years later. Today's Long Island Youth Orchestra has been in residence at Long Island University for the past eighteen years. More About Us | |
