THE CNY JAZZ YOUTH ORCHESTRA provides a unique pre-professional performance opportunity for youth across Syracuse and Onondaga County. Our orchestra members, many trained in our SummerJazz Workshop, rehearse and perform in a concentrated schedule of summer festival concerts.

There is no tuition. Members receive prevailing wages for free public service concerts. They become Youth Members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 78. They may remain as eligible members of the orchestra until age 21 if they continue as full-time students in High School or college.

A limited number of weekly evening rehearsals are held in May and June, and concerts are scheduled in July and August. Private auditions for open positions are announced to regional school band directors and scheduled in the Jazz Central education center in downtown Syracuse, the rehearsal hall for the orchestra.

OUR DIRECTOR

Nate Kaercher is a veteran professional musician and public school music educator. As a trumpet performer, he is active throughout Central New York. He has been a featured soloist with the Onondaga Civic Symphony and has performed with the Central New York Jazz Orchestra, Salt City Jazz Collective, The DeSantis Orchestra, the Gap Mangione Big Band, and The Temptations, among others. Nate has been the recipient of the Project KEYS Music Teacher of the Year Award and the Oneida Jazz Festival Outstanding Director Award. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Trumpet Performance and Music Education from Ithaca College.

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

CNY Jazz, the largest jazz education organization in Upstate New York, will provide college entry support to Youth Orchestra members or any High School student on request, should they wish to pursue a music degree beyond High School. These include family counseling about college choices and careers, and audition recording services in the Jazz Central theater. We will provide coaching and professional musicians to accompany them in their all-important, required college entry audition videos.