History Arts administrator and artist manager Frank Salomon created the seminar in 1969 for Alexander Schneider, one of the m ... ost important musical figures of the 20th century. Schneider was deeply committed to young artists and was an inspiration to generations of musicians. He believed that music has to "come from your heart and your soul, or it has no meaning." The New York String Orchestra Seminar was designed to offer professional training to gifted string, wind, brass, and timpani students who have reached a formative point in the development of their musical understanding and professional goals. Acclaimed conductor, soloist, and chamber musician Jaime Laredo, Schneider's personal choice as successor, has led the orchestra since 1993. Laredo has introduced some of the country's most gifted young musicians to new musical ideas, offering them chamber music coaching from members of the world's top ensembles and giving them the challenge of performing at a professional level onstage at Carnegie Hall. The seminar's more than 2,400 alumni are found in every state of the country. We are proud to include conductors and soloists such as Marin Alsop, Pamela Frank, Karina Canellakis, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Oundjian, Gil Shaham, and Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg; chamber musicians in groups as diverse as Brooklyn Rider, the Silkroad Ensemble, and the Dover, Emerson, Kronos, Orion, and Takacs string quartets; and concertmasters and principals in every major U.S. orchestra, including the concertmasters of the Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia orchestras and the Los Angeles and New York philharmonics. We are equally proud of the many alumni who are contributing to the musical lives of young people on the faculties of major conservatories and in the classrooms of public schools. read more