Philharmonia

MYSO’s second symphony orchestra, numbering 140 members, participates in a curriculum that introduces the major styles and national flavors of symphonic literature. This ensemble plays a wide variety of challenging original works. Most students in this group are in grades 9-12.

Philharmonia Music Directors

Ron Melby

Mr. Melby taught in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District for 32 years and retired as orchestra director at Nathan Hale High School in 1995.  This year he begins his 45th season with MYSO.  He served on the staff of the Wisconsin High School Honors Orchestra for two years and directed at the first National Youth Orchestra Festival in Washington, DC, in 1977.  Mr. Melby received his BMusEd degree from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and has graduate credits in String Development and Music Education from that institution, as well.  His education also includes summer institute study with Shinichi Suzuki, George Bornhoff and Paul Roland.  In 1993, he received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association/Wisconsin String Teachers Association.  In 2002 Mr. Melby was honored by the Civic Music Association with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Carter Simmons

Mr. Simmons has managed operations, growth, programming and artistic concerns for MYSO since 1992.  He feels honored to conduct the Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia and Junior Symphony Orchestra and regards his time with MYSO’s musicians to be a great privilege and responsibility, while also being great fun!  Mr. Simmons has been recognized by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for “distinguished contributions to music education in Wisconsin” and received an award for Excellence in Youth Music Instruction from the Civic Music Association. He has conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Racine Symphony Orchestra, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Festival City Symphony and Concord Chamber Orchestra, as well as conducting in Europe and China.  He has served as a guest clinician for thousands of young musicians across Wisconsin and Illinois and has fostered MYSO collaborations with companies such as First Stage Children’s Theater, Present Music, the Milwaukee Ballet and the MSO.  Mr. Simmons helped design and oversee construction of the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center.  He has presented at the League of American Orchestras conference and has participated in conducting seminars of the League—conducting the Civic Orchestra of Chicago—and the Conductor’s Guild, conducting Eastman's Wind Ensemble; he was also named a finalist for the National Symphony Orchestra’s National Conducting Institute.  Mr. Simmons feels  extremely fortunate to have worked with conducting teachers Dr. John R. Locke, and Professors Robert Gutter, Thomas L. Dvorak and Larry Rachleff.  As part of his education he attended classes led by Elizabeth A. H. Green, John Downey, Leon Fleischer, Gustav Meier, Frederick Fennell, H. Robert Reynolds, Christopher Wilkins, Donald Thulean, and Larry Rachleff among others.  He received his BM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Horn Performance and his MM in Conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was a graduate assistant and a conductor of the UWM Youth Wind Ensemble.  Mr. Simmons, a native of Virginia and North Carolina, received much of his early musical training from members of the Washington, DC military bands.