As part of our festival, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (GDYO) performed on Sunday, June 7, at the Horácko Theatre in Jihlava. The orchestra’s mission is to provide young musicians with high-quality musical education, as well as opportunities for artistic growth and public performance. It fosters musical talent, creativity, independence, and teamwork skills over the long term, making a significant contribution to the personal development of its members.

The program featured John Adams’s *Short Ride in a Fast Machine* (1986) and Benjamin Britten’s (1913–1976) *The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra*, Op. 34. Violinist Maria Schleuning gave an excellent performance in *The Butterfly Lovers* by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang. After the intermission, the audience heard the highly anticipated Fourth Symphony by P. I. Tchaikovsky; the young musicians played the dramatic first movement—including its lyrical passages—with deep feeling. The string *pizzicato* in the third movement sounded beautiful, and the triumphant climax of the entire concert was truly gripping. They were outstanding—the quality of their performance rivals that of many professional ensembles! "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!"—these cries rang out through the hall amidst the applause.

The audience was reluctant to let the young musicians and conductor Richard Giangiulio leave the stage, so two encores followed: Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 8 and the Cossack Dance by Tchaikovsky.