The Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra will premiere a composition by Marietta teen composer Will Weaver.
The concert with be held October 17, 2021 at Kennesaw State University’s Bailey Center for the Performing Arts.
For more information, read the complete press release for the event, reprinted below:
Georgia Youth Symphony to premiere orchestral suite Fire by promising young composer
(Marietta, Ga. Oct. 13, 2021) Marietta teen Will Weaver is on his way to becoming one of the next generation of classical music composers. On Oct. 17, 2021, the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra will premiere one of his original compositions at Kennesaw State University’s Bailey Center for the Performing Arts.
Inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Weaver composed Orchestral Suite in B Minor, Opus Two, Fire, in 2020. GYSO’s Philharmonic orchestra will perform the first movement, which depicts a fire igniting. Movements two and three invoke images of a cheerful fire in a hearth and then a raging wildfire.
Weaver has been a member of GYSO since 2018 and currently plays viola with the GYSO Symphony and the Honors String Quartet. He is a sophomore at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta, where he also plays violin for the HIES Upper School orchestra.
At the end of the last GYSO season, Weaver told Philharmonic Director Kelly Thomas he was working on some orchestral compositions and asked for her feedback. “When Will sent me the orchestral suite for Fire, I was beyond impressed,” said Thomas. That led to her asking Weaver for permission to premiere the suite’s first movement this season. “It has been a delight to see him develop as a composer through different drafts to suit the orchestra’s specific needs and it has been inspirational to both myself and the other students of GYSO,” she said.
As a composer, Weaver’s focus is on writing contemporary classical works for orchestras and chamber groups. He also enjoys arranging music from video games and other forms of digital media. Also in 2020, another one of his compositions, Two Rondos for Piano Trio, received honors in a Georgia Music Educators Association competition.
Founded in 2006, GYSO is the largest youth orchestra program in the Southeast and one of the top-10 largest such programs by enrollment in the United States. For more information, visit georgiayouthsymphony.org.
