Oak Ridge Youth Symphony Orchestra

The Oak Ridge Youth Symphony Orchestra (ORYSO) consists of students in 7th through 12th grades from area schools. These students have qualified to be in the orchestra based on their audition CDs.  Preston Davis is the conductor of ORYSO. He succeeds Slade Trammell, the second conductor of ORYSO.

The executive director of ORYSO is Seaira Stephenson, who volunteered for this position as a member of the board of directors of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, the umbrella organization for ORYSO, the Oak Ridge Symphony and Chorus, the Isotone Concert Series, the Chamber Concert series, and the free Coffee Concert series.

ORYSO was started in 2009 with a vision by Roddy Lee, son of Russell Lee and Patricia Hu (former board member), and lots of support from ORCMA Board members Joan-Ellen Zucker and Seaira Stephenson, who serves as executive director of ORYSO. The first conductor was Rachel Grubb, a talented conducting major in the music department at the University of Tennessee, who also served as the music director of the new Oak Ridge Summer Conservatory in the summers of 2009, 2010, and 2011. She graduated in 2010 from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting. She is continuing her conducting studies as a second-year graduate student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.