Welcome to the YSPF

Joan Milkson, President, YSPF © Fred Cattroll

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Students,

On behalf of the YSPF Board of Directors, I thank you all for assisting us in presenting such wonderful concerts this past season!

There were many wonderful musical memories made celebrating:

We would also like to congratulate the students who performed on our concerts and who also received honours and awards from other Ottawa organizations this past season.

And, in fulfillment of our YSPF mandate, we also provided students other public performance opportunities.

This season’s concert dates are:

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Saturday, May 3, 2025

Saturday, June 7, 2025

All concerts take place in the First Unitarian Congregation, 30 Cleary Ave., and begin at 7:30 p.m.

Joan Milkson
President

News

2023-11-16: Joan Milkson inducted into Order of Ottawa Show details...

On Thursday 16 November 2023, our founder and president, Joan Milkson, was honoured to be one of 15 people inducted into the Order of Ottawa this year.

Joan is a founding member and assistant concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. During her 39 years with the orchestra, she founded the NAC Musicians in the School Quintet and, with her NACO colleagues, performed in schools in the National Capital Region, offering young people an introduction to, and broader understanding of, classical music.

In 2002, she founded the Young String Performers’ Foundation (YSPF) to “create, provide, promote and subsidize opportunities that will develop the abilities of promising young string performers of the National Capital Region up to the age of 18” (see About the Foundation). During the more than 20 years the YSPF has been in existence, it has offered performance opportunities and financial support to several hundred aspiring young string musicians in the National Capital Region, some of whom now have solo careers or are members of internationally renowned orchestras.

We are pleased that the City of Ottawa has chosen to formally recognize Joan’s contribution not only to the city, but also to the entire National Capital Region.

2023-04-17: YSPF announces additional concert on Sunday, May 7, 2023 Show details...

The YSPF is pleased to announce that it will hold an additional concert on Sunday, May 7, 2023. This concert is in addition to the usual four concerts held during a season. Detail will be posted on the Upcoming Events page as they become available.

2022-10-19 (Sat.): Young String Performers in Concert Show details...

The first Young String Performers in Concert of the 2022-2023 season will take place on Saturday 29 October at 7:30  p.m. For more details, please refer to the entry on the Upcoming Events page.

2022-02-14: New YSPF Video (from January 2022) Online Show details...

The video of our virtual concert from 29 January is now available for viewing. Click here to view it (40 minutes). The musical portion of the video is preceded by a short tribute to Eli McKhool, a member of our Board of Directors from the founding of the YSPF until his death in December 2021.

Although the video is stored on Facebook, no Facebook account is required to view it.

Click here to view the program.

If for some reason you have difficulty viewing the video, try using another video player, such as VideoLAN. VideoLAN is a free and very versatile video player that “runs on all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android….” It is available for download at www.videolan.org/vlc.

2021-07-04: New YSPF Video (from June 2021) Online Show details...

In June, the YSPF again recorded a video of some of its young artists in performance. Click here to view the video (61 minutes) on Google Drive or here to view it on our Facebook page.

Click here to view the program.

If for some reason you have difficulty viewing the video, try using another video player, such as VideoLAN. VideoLAN is a free and very versatile video player that “runs on all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android….” It is available for download at www.videolan.org/vlc.

2021-05-25: New YSPF Video (from April 2021) Online Show details...

In April, the YSPF again recorded a video of some of its young artists in performance. Click here to view the video (50 minutes) on Google Drive or here to view it on our Facebook page.

Click here to view the program.

If for some reason you have difficulty viewing the video, try using another video player, such as VideoLAN. VideoLAN is a free and very versatile video player that “runs on all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android….” It is available for download at www.videolan.org/vlc.

2021-03-29: New YSPF Video (from February 2021) Online Show details...

On 27 February 2021, the YSPF recorded a video of some of its young artists in performance. Click here to view the video (55 minutes) on our Facebook page.

Click here to view the program.

If for some reason you have difficulty viewing the video, try using another video player, such as VideoLAN. VideoLAN is a free and very versatile video player that “runs on all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android….” It is available for download at www.videolan.org/vlc.

UPDATE 2021-05-31: Unfortunately, the video had to be removed from the Google site because of space limitations. Please use the link to the copy of the video stored on our Facebook page.

2021-02-14: New YSPF Video (from January 2021) Online Show details...

On 23 January 2021, the YSPF recorded a video of some of its young artists in performance. Click here to view the video (35 minutes) on Google Drive or here to view it on our Facebook page.

Click here to view the program.

If for some reason you have difficulty viewing the video, try using another video player, such as VideoLAN. VideoLAN is a free and very versatile video player that “runs on all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, iOS, Android….” It is available for download at www.videolan.org/vlc.

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