Empire State Youth Orchestra breaks ground on new Scotia home

SCOTIA — When Rebecca Calos, executive director of Empire State Youth Orchestra, first toured the former St. Joseph’s Parish School in 2021, she didn’t see a patchy back field or the concrete shell of a gymnasium. She saw picnic tables filled with chattering music students and a rehearsal hall filled with a soaring symphony.

In short, she saw an eight-acre home for ESYO.

“A sense of place and a sense of home really matters in education,” said Calos, who was determined to find ESYO its own building since she joined in 2013. “Even when I first came to EYSO, I would walk in and out of rehearsals, and it was never a sense of, ‘This is ours.’ And that impacts how you feel when you’re coming in and how you interact with your peers.”

Four years later — and amidst ESYO’s 45th season — ground has finally been broken on an ambitious project that will transform the 20,000-square-foot building into a state-of-the-art Capital Region Youth Music Center. Construction is expected to take a year, putting ESYO students and staff into their new home by Dec. 2, 2026.

Once completed, the center will feature acoustically advanced rehearsal and recording studios, performance venues, a communal kitchen, administrative offices and a high-tech lounge where waiting parents can plug in headphones to listen to their kids’ rehearsals. A room sponsored by Bill and Susan Dake of the Stewart’s Shops family will be designed by ESYO’s youth leaders for planning meetings, leadership workshops and more. ESYO founder Barry Richman will be the chair of this final phase of construction.

ESYO purchased the site for $410,000 in 2022. At the time, the project cost was $10 million. But when the team behind the transformation recalculated the cost to address inflation in 2024, it had grown to $12.3 million.

A mix of private and public funds, including grants through the American Rescue Plan Act and New York State Council of the Arts, has supported the project. An additional $2 million is needed to see the project to completion.

“Yeah, we’re investing a building, we’re investing in space. But really, we’re investing in students,” said Assemblymember Angelo Santabarbara, who helped secure $3 million in state funding for the project this past spring. “We’re investing in creativity opportunity.”

Since its founding in 1976, ESYO has grown to 14 performing ensembles and orchestras, plus educational outreach programming, and provides training for over 600 young musicians from across the greater Capital Region annually. The youth orchestra connects its musicians with dedicated instructors, sought-after conductors and contemporary composers, as well as opportunities to perform in lauded venues, including Carnegie Hall, and internationally. The orchestra is currently under the artistic direction of Etienne Abelin.

“At ESYO, students show up every week. They sit down next to someone form a different school, a different background, a different age and create something beautiful,” Abelin said.

One of ESYO’s centerpiece programs is CHIME, short for Creating Harmony Inspiring Musical Empowerment. Created in 2015, CHIME offers tuition-free after-school music programming — with a pipeline to ESYO’s performance ensembles — to 170 students across the Schenectady City School District. Programming is held at Proctors Theatre and Yates Elementary School.

It was in the cafeteria of the latter that current CHIME student and ESYO musician Mia Montross picked up her first mallet at the age of 6.

“ESYO, especially CHIME, really drives to make music accessible, and that’s something that I’m so passionate about,” Montross said. “With the CHIME program, I haven’t paid a single dollar to be a part of it, to pay for music lessons, none of it. Everything is free for all CHIME students, and it’s just incredible how much the teachers care how much ESYO does for those students to make music accessible to them and to make good music education available.”

More than 200 students are currently on a waitlist for the decade-old program. The Capital Region Youth Music Center is key to allowing ESYO to grow CHIME enrollment, meet the growing need and expand to more school districts across Schenectady County, Calos said. The goal is to have the program running at Proctors, Yates and the center.

“I am really excited that we are all here this morning,” beamed Calos, a row of golden shovels glinting behind her awaiting the ceremonial dirt tossing. “I feel like saying, ‘Pinch me, are we dreaming?’ because it’s been a journey, a long journey.”