YOSA Classics I: Metamorphosis

YOSA Classics I: Metamorphosis opens at the H-E-B Performance Hall on Sunday, November 1, and it's the start of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio's 50th season. The YOSA Philharmonic takes the lead, with works by Gurwitz, Gershwin and Hindemith, and YOSA Mariachi joins in for the evening.

This is the first installment of the Classic Albums Live series, which takes classic rock and pop songs and gives them an orchestral makeover. It's not a new concept for the organization—past shows have paid tribute to Prince, Queen, the Beatles and Selena—but it's a good way to see how they handle familiar songs in a completely different arrangement. The performance is led by student musicians from YOSA's most advanced ensembles: the YOSA Philharmonic, the YOSA Symphony conducted by Kenneth Freudigman, and the YOSA Wind Ensemble conducted by Andy Post. Troy Peters conducts the Philharmonic.

To get a sense of who's on stage, it helps to know what YOSA is. It's a youth music organization that reaches more than 2,500 young musicians aged 8 to 20 through eleven orchestras, its Summer Symphony Camp and School Partnerships. A big part of what they do is working to remove financial and social barriers to high-quality music education, so when you see these kids on stage, you're seeing the result of a program that brings music to a lot of different kids across the city. The ensembles involved in this show—the Philharmonic, the Symphony and the Wind Ensemble—are the top tiers of that system.

It's a Sunday night at the Tobin Center, and since it's the season opener, it's a good chance to catch the new season getting underway. The Philharmonic takes the lead, with the Symphony and Wind Ensemble filling out the sound, and the Mariachi group adding their own flavor to the mix. The whole thing is on November 1 at the H-E-B Performance Hall.