SVYS Hosts the Springfield, MO, Youth Orchestra

The two Springfields will combine for a joint concert on Saturday, February 26. Each orchestra will perform individually, followed by a combined side-by-side finale. All SVYS members, families, and the public are invited to this free concert.

Hoogland Center for the Arts
Theatre 3
1:30 pm, Saturday, February 26, 2005

SVYS is pleased to acknowledge Servpro of Springfield as our sponsor for this concert.

View SVYS Musicians Gig Sheet

Springfield, Missouri, Youth Symphony

The Springfield Youth Symphony was founded in 1957 and is sponsored financially by the Springfield (MO) Public Schools and by the Friends of the Youth Symphony, a parent booster organization.  Ranging in age from 13 to 18, members of the Springfield Youth symphony are selected by audition from Springfield and the surrounding area.  During its nearly fifty-year history, the Orchestra has provided numerous outstanding young musicians with an opportunity to study and perform the standard orchestral repertoire.  In recent years, the Orchestra has toured to various parts of the United States and Canada performing at the Banff international Festival of Youth Orchestras in 1996 and 1999, the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago in 2000, and the Missouri Music Educators Conference in 2001. 

Dr. Larry Dissmore, Music Director

When named to succeed retiring conductor, Robert Holden, in 2002, Dr. Larry Dissmore became just the seventh Music Director to lead the Springfield Youth Symphony in its nearly fifty-year history.  Dr. Dissmore’s varied musical career has included work as a conductor, teacher, and violinist.  Currently, he holds a full-time position as an Associate professor of Music at Evangel University where he serves as Director of Orchestras and as Applied Violin Instructor.  Under his leadership, the Evangel Concert Orchestra has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and has recorded four compact discs.

In addition to his conducting and teachings, Dr. Dissmore remains active as a violinist.  He is a member of the Excelsis Trio, serves as Principal Second Violin in the Springfield (MO) Symphony, and performs as Concertmaster of the Springfield Regional Opera Orchestra.  As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras in Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  Past orchestral positions have included serving as Concertmaster of the La Crosse (WI) Symphony, as first violinist with the Wichita (KS) Symphony and Music Theatre Orchestras, and as first violinist in the Rochester (MN Symphony.  In the commercial arena, Dr. Dissmore has performed with such varied entertainers as Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Price, Kenny Rogers, Leslie Uggams, Regis and Kathy Lee, John Tesch, Mel Torme, Daniel O’Donnell and many others.