CYMO at National Youth Orchestra Festival 2002, Sarasota, FL

The flights were great. We arrived on time and had a smooth plane change in Atlanta. Our flight got into Tampa at 10:15 a.m.
Without much sleep on the plane, the orchestra members caught a little "shut-eye" wherever they could.

We called for buses, got everyone loaded on, and then went to a restaurant for Mexican food. It was great.
Just think. We traveled 3,000 miles to get some good Mexican food.
Then we had an hour-long drive to the hotel arriving at 2:30 p.m.
The hotel wasn't ready to check in a large group, so it took a while to get room assignments and keys distributed.
Our activities started right away. With six orchestras participating, it was time to get acquainted. There was a welcome, some mixer games, and an ice cream party. Then the musicians went to their first sectional rehearsals where they met their master teachers. There are top-notch teachers for all the kids. The strings took most of the time distributing music, but the other sections--being smaller--distributed music quickly and got right to rehearsing. On Tuesday night, three of the orchestras--CYMO and two others--will be giving their own concerts. On Wednesday night, the other three orchestras will give their own concerts. Then the six orchestras will be mixed into four orchestras, and the four mixed orchestras will present concerts on Saturday for the conclusion of the festival.