Portland Youth Philharmonic

Building on a nucleus of students working with local violin teacher Mary V. Dodge, who had earlier founded and directed the acclaimed Sagebrush Symphony in Burns, Oregon, the Portland Junior Symphony Association recruited Russian conductor Jacques Gershkovitch to form a full youth orchestra. He agreed, and in 1924 the Portland Junior Symphony was established as the first youth orchestra in the United States and soon became a model for youth orchestras around the country. Gershkovitch remained at the helm until his death in 1953, and was succeeded by his former apprentice Jacob Avshalomov in 1954. Avshalomov, also an established composer, led the orchestra for the next forty years. The orchestra changed its name to the Portland Youth Philharmonic in 1978.

Both conductors brought the orchestra to audiences far beyond Oregon. Under Gershkovitch, the Portland Junior Symphony performances were heard on nationwide radio in the 1930s and internationally in the next decade. Avshalomov’s orchestra produced commercially-offered recordings and traveled to the U.S. East Coast, Europe, and Japan. Oregon Public Broadcasting produced an hour-long television program featuring the youth orchestra which aired nationally in 1973. In 1984, the PYP celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in tandem with the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts, performing in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center under the direction of Leonard Bernstein.

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