Detroit MYS News and Happenings
DMYS brings challenging, fun, and unique music to Detroit MYS students and provides incredible instruction and musical excellence. THIS GETS US NOTICED!!!
Symphony orchestrA Plays carnegie Hall
Congrats to our Symphony Orchestra on their incredible debut performance at Carnegie Hall in June 2026! The Performance included the DMYS Commission “Taking Flight” by Clint Needham as well as Schubert’s “Rosamunde Overture.” While in NY, students prepared for the performance in a clinic with Helen Cha-Pyo, Artistic Director of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts and Principal Conductor of the New Jersey Youth Symphony.
2026 American Prize
NATIONAL FINALIST IN Orchestral Performance
DMYS Symphony Orchestra is once again a national finalist in the Orchestral Performance division of The American Prize national non-profit competitions in the performing arts, for their May 2025 performance under Conductor Jeremy Duby of the Dvorak "New World Symphony."
The award is a testament to the effort and musical instruction throughout the entire organization.
The prestigious American Prize is a series of national competitions in the non-profit performing arts recognizing America's finest performing artists, ensembles, and composers at both community and professional levels.
In 2022, DMYS Symphony Orchestra under Conductor Doug Bianchi received awards in TWO categories (both for the 2019 performance of Symphony No. 4 in D minor by Robert Schumann).
FIRST PLACE: The American Prize in Conducting (community/school orchestra division)
HONORABLE MENTION: The American Prize in Orchestral Performance
The Moscow Ballet
DMYS has provided soloists for The Nutcracker performance by the Moscow Ballet at the Fox Theatre since 2015. Congratulations to violist Miles Goedert, Symphony Orchestra, who was chosen to perform as part of the Moscow Ballet "Musical Wunderkind" program which is brought annually to cities on the company's Great Russian Nutcracker tour. Miles, a senior at the International Academy, plays piano, viola and cello. He studies viola under the direction of Jacob Traines. Miles was honored with performing some of his original compositions at the Michigan Music Education Association Competitions for three consecutive years. He attended Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for six years and has played in Europe through an exchange program. Congratulations to Miles on his selection by DMYS as the Moscow Ballet Wunderkind!
For more information and Tickets: MOSCOW BALLET
Miles Goedert, 2019 Moscow Ballet Detroit Wunderkind
Kelly Deng, 2018 Moscow Ballet Detroit Wunderkind
Nohemi M. Perez-Barradas, 2017 Moscow Ballet Detroit Wunderkind
Olga Aru, Moscow ballet prima ballerina, and Landon Oja, 2015 DMYS Wunderkind
Ethan Bortnick
World renown child prodigy in piano and composer/arranger/vocalist, Ethan Bortnick, contacted us to perform with him in October 2015 at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, just outside of Detroit. Recognized by the Guinness World Records as The World’s Youngest Solo Musician to Head-line His Own Concert Tour, 14-year-old Ethan Bortnick has been performing everything from the most difficult classical compositions, to jazz, to rock and roll, the world over, since the age of 6. He has invited countless musical celebrities to join him, and raised over $40 million for charities across the globe, Now he has invited Detroit Metropolitan Youth Symphony to perform with him as well!
DMYS Concert Poster
Conductor Geoffrey Benes rehearsing at the General Assembly with the DMYS Select Orchestra, picture courtesy of ericperryphotography
221st General Assembly
When the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. wanted an orchestra to open its 221st General Assembly at Cobo Hall in Detroit, they contacted Detroit Metropolitan Youth Symphony to provide. Under the direction of our Symphony Orchestra Conductor, Geoffrey Benes, a Select Orchestra from Detroit MYS opened this international event with the 4th movement of Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony and an excerpt from Gustav Holst's Jupiter from The Planets to a live audience of over 4000 and an uncountable audience worldwide, as the event was live streamed.
