Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies  The Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies" (GTCYS) is a group of youth orchestras in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Founded in 1972, GTCYS has served over 16,000 musicians and put on more than 500 concerts. The top orchestra has also traveled on 12 national and international tours. GTCYS currently features 9 orchestras for young musicians any age through high school. GTCYS is a youth orchestra program based in the Greater Twin Cities metro that draws over 600 students from eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Artistic director is Mark Russell Smith, who also conducts the top orchestra, Symphony. History: Founded in 1972. In 2011, GTCYS and the SPCO formed a strategic partnership to serve the community through music and build classical music audiences. As of the 2018/19 season, there are nine orchestras starting from the rudimentary level. All of the orchestras require an audition which will place the instrumentalist into an orchestra that meets their playing needs. The only exception are the two Summer Orchestras that play and meet during the Summer which do not require an audition. Halfway through the Fall/Spring semester there is a Winter Audition for students who wish to participate for the last half of the GTCYS year. This orchestra is split between East and West locations for rehearsals and performances. These orchestras do not have any woodwind, brass, or percussion instruments. This orchestra involves the Brass, Percussion, and Woodwinds. The auditions are more difficult and require harder audition pieces and more scales. This orchestra involves the Brass, Percussion, and Woodwinds. The auditions now become more difficult and require harder audition pieces and more scales. This orchestra involves Brass, Percussion, and Woodwinds. The auditions now become slightly more difficult and require harder audition pieces and more scales. The Top three Orchestras are Concert Orchestra (Mark Gitch), Philharmonic (Gary Wolfman), and Symphony (Mark Russell Smith). ALL orchestras include a full range of Brass, Woodwinds and Percussion and focus on more advanced music with a large range music from contemporary to the classics. This orchestra is the lowest to regularly play unedited works for orchestra. In this orchestra, students begin to tackle the more difficult works in the professional orchestral repertoire. It has the most advanced set of music and players. This orchestra has the opportunity to travel internationally. Concerts have been performed at notable venues in the Twin Cities such as Orchestra Hall and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.