Nearly 110 select  musicians from Essex County are studying the classics this fall – from Haydn to Handel – and rehearsing for a winter concert on Sunday, Dec. 12.

Every Monday, the musicians of the Youth Orchestras of Essex County practice, practice, practice their program, responding to the baton and discovering within themselves the joy of a high-level orchestra experience.

In this Patch video by Nilsa De La Cruz, members of the Junior Symphony rehearse with Louis Kosma, the YOEC Music Director & Junior Symphony Conductor. Kosma, presently a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, coaxes these teenage players through a technically demanding program.

Murray Colosimo, the woodwinds/brass coordinator, moves among the musicians, offering encouragement, and correcting notes and balance. "They come here after their school day and they work really hard on their orchestral parts and polishing up their sections and their independent part playing," Colosimo said. "I think the students had a lot of fun. They also got a good workout."

The Youth Orchestras of Essex County is comprised of three other performing groups: The Essex County Symphony Orchestra, an advanced, full orchestra of serious and accomplished musicians, typically in grades 9-12; Overture Strings, a beginning orchestral experience for young string players, typically in grades 3-5; and Chamber Ensembles. The orchestras were founded in 1956 under the sponsorship of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the West Orange Public Schools.

The public is invited to the winter concert  at 2 p.m. Sun., Dec.12 at South Orange Middle School, 70 N. Ridgewood Road, South Orange. Adult ticket sales of $5 per person fund the YOEC scholarship program. Children are free.