The first performance of the NOYS will be on Tuesday, November 10, at 7pm. The performance will be held in the Port Angeles High School auditorium. The Youth Orchestra should be ready to warm up at 6:30. The Honor and Jr. Youth Orchestras should be on stage at 6:15 ready to warm up. Honor Orchestra members should wear their NOYS T-shirt for the performance. Jr. Youth and Youth Orchestra members are to wear a white tux shirt and bow tie with black pants or skirt, black socks and black shoes. T-shirts under the tux shirt should be white only. No pictures or writing that will show through the shirt. Skirts should fall below the knees when sitting.

Researchers have discovered a way to make kids smarter, and savvy parents are signing their children up for private music lessons while school boards debate the role of music in the public school curriculum.

Statistics indicate that students who participate in music earn higher grades and score better on standardized tests, but no one has been sure what that means: Do the brighter students gravitate toward music, or does music make the students brighter? Now there is powerful evidence of a cause-and-effect link between music instruction and intelligence.

In a study conducted by psychologist Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh and physicist Gordon Shaw of the University of California at Irvine, preschool children were divided into four groups. One group received private piano keyboard lessons while another received private lessons on a computer. The remaining two groups served as controls, receiving neither piano nor computer instruction. According to a report published in the February 1997 issue of Neurological Research, the children who had received piano keyboard instruction scored thirty-four percent higher than the others on tests designed to measure spatial-temporal reasoning. Because these functions are critical components in the understanding of subjects like mathematics, science and engineering, this body of research has significant implications for public education policy.

This year we have more people joining the NOYS than ever before. We could easily break 100 members this year before we�re through! We must be doing something right!

We are at a point where we are rethinking the end of the year awards. Awards will be based on the number of NOYS concerts the member performs (rather than "years in good standing"). Some parents have suggested that we need not give placks out for each year. Some have asked that we don�t continue with that. So what should the awards look like? What will we call them? They aren�t 1st or 2nd year. They are based on the number of concerts performed. Do we call them "green", "silver" and "gold"? Any ideas or suggestions? Please let us know your thoughts.

A reminder that dues should be taken care of by November first.

We now have NOYS bumper stickers. They were passed out during one of our rehearsals and will be available during our first concert.

The Monday rehearsal before concerts will be run on a shortened schedule. The first rehearsal will run from 4pm to 4:45pm. The second rehearsal will run from 5pm to 5:45pm. This will be the schedule for the November 9 rehearsal. We always take the week off after a concert, so there will be no rehearsal on November 16.

Make a note of these future dates for Port Angeles Symphony Concerts:

November 7

December 12

February 6

March 13

April 17

There is a 10am open rehearsal the morning of each of these concerts. Tickets are $3 for students and seniors, $4 for adults and $8 for families. NOYS members can pick up one free ticket (compliments of PASO) for these performances during the Monday rehearsal the week before the performance.

The Seattle Youth Symphony will be performing in Port Angeles on May 15. More information about this performance as it becomes available.