Northern Valley Youth Orchestras: Encore!
4:30 pm Sunday, Nov 16th, 2025
Empire Arts Center
415 Demers Ave. Grand Forks
Tickets: Pay what you can, $5 suggested minimum.
Northern Valley Youth Orchestras’ 15th season, “Encore!” opens with a fall concert on Sunday, November 16th at 4:30 pm at the Empire Arts Center. The two NVYO student symphony orchestras will each perform an exciting variety of symphonic music by composers both living and historic, including familiar favorites, lesser-known masterpieces and brand new works. The concert will take audiences on an exploration of cities and cultures from around the world, through music and film. NVYO Symphony will perform the North Dakota premiere of the short film “Oceana,” a multimedia composition with music by Stella Sung and film and ocean recordings by renowned underwater videographer Annie Crawley. “Oceana” highlights the issue of ocean noise pollution and looks for solutions to human and ocean coexistence; the music soundtrack will be performed live while the film plays. Student musicians had the opportunity to meet by Zoom with both the composer and the videographer, who live on opposite coasts, and to learn how the ocean impacts everyone, even those who live 1,500 miles away. Symphony will also perform four movements from Bao Yuankai’s epic “Chinese Sights and Sounds” symphonic suite. Philharmonic orchestra will perform arrangements of the Overture to Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II, whose 250th birthday year we celebrate this fall; Leroy Anderson’s "Irish Suite"; and Gustav Holst’s "Song without Words", along with a brand new work, “Angel City,” composed just last year by celebrated American composer Soon Hee Newbold.
NVYO includes two performing symphonic orchestras: Symphony, conducted by Dr. Kevin Sütterlin and assistant Devon Tucker; and Philharmonic, led by Kara Hartten with assistant Katie Stermer. The 90+ string, wind, brass and percussion student musicians come from over a dozen regional cities and schools in Minnesota and North Dakota, including Grand Forks, Manvel, Grafton, Thompson, Reynolds, Minto, and Pembina, North Dakota; and East Grand Forks, Crookston, and Fisher MN, and includes several UND college mentor musicians. NVYO programs provide challenging symphonic technique and performance opportunities for young musicians aged 9 to 21, within a supportive setting. NVYO participants make music, make friends, and use their talents to make a difference in the community. General admission tickets are only available at the door, pay-what-you-can, with a suggested minimum of $5 per person. NVYO chamber musicians will perform additional works prior to the concert, which will also be live-streamed and recorded.
NVYO and its programming are supported in part by a number of generous grants including: the City of Grand Forks; the Neel Family Fund and Iseminger Fund for the Arts, via the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, and region; the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Myra Foundation; and the Grand Forks Park District Foundation Ulland Fund. Additional support and assistance from donors and sponsors, dozens of area music teachers, and community venues, make the activities of this season possible. More info at nvyo.org