For Katseanes to comment that intonation was very good is something that must be heard to confirm, since no student orchestra, have good intonation. Heck, the Utah Symphony has relatively poor intonation when you compare to the Chicago, Boston, NY Phil, etc.

But if one can't hear superb intonation, then, it doesn't make any difference to the audience, but for others who are used to the world class ensembles, it makes a huge difference.

Intonation is where the difference can be found between the real pros, Berlin Phil, London Symphony, Vienna Phil, etc, and the wanna be pros, Utah, Denver, etc, where they sound much closer to community orchestras.

It's hard to explain the difference when one can't hear the difference, but I guess one might equate it to the difference in fine dinning and a burger joint.

But for those who are serious with their food, they know, between dining and eating, there is a very big difference.

BYU and many other orchestras, are just burger joints. To say any other is just self-aggrandizing.

Paying New York audiences are merciless, so, how would the responses be if the tickets weren't free, and it wasn't LDS members that went?

I am wondering if the writer of the above comment was present and actually heard the performance. If not present, the comments were unusually acidic. If present, the comments may have real value. Just wondering.

Regarding intonation, I'm not sure what you're trying to prove. Did Kory say they were better than the world's best orchestras? No.

He is a director of a university ensemble at a school that is well respected for its music department. I don't think he was aggrandizing himself or the group. Actually, I would think that the group rehearsed those pieces much more than a typical professional orchestra rehearses their pieces, talent and experience notwithstanding. I'm sure he was grateful for the extra time the students probably put in. In a university environment, and especially preparing for something like this, they probably worked very hard down to the minutia. I'm sure with all of their effort and prayers they were able to produce something special that he was proud of, that's all.

I don't want to doubt your intentions, commenter, but it sounds a little like you are just trying to aggrandize yourself with your knowledge and experience with music.

I was there. The intonation WAS good. Did they sound as tight as Orpheus or the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra? Of course not. But the Copland is tricky even for professional orchestras to keep in tune and the kids did remarkably well in this regard. Should that be lauded? I think so. Yes there was an occasional warble, a few flubs, etc. but who really cares?

Speculating how a New York audience would have received BYU had the tickets not been free is nothing short of idiotic. W/o a connection to either BYU or the church we simply would not have gone no matter what -- except maybe a few opera fanatics who adore Jenny's voice (and we're right to do so BTW), and a few tourists who would have gone to any concert happening at Carnegie that night.

Who is that "Fast Food" guy, the intonation police? Please.

I was at the performance and during the intermission two NY Philharmonic season ticket holders came in and started talking to me. They had been at a NY Phil performance, became disgusted and walked out. They decided to see if they could get into Carnegie Hall and see if there was something better there. Talking to them afterwards, they were very impressed. They had enjoyed the performance very much and I'm sure BYU Chamber Orchestra has some new "sophisticated" NY admirers. We sat next to non-BYU, non LDS attendees who were neither tourists nor opera fanatics who also told us that they enjoyed the performance immensely. Some of these comments seem ridiculous! Do a lot of people just pretend to know a lot about things they Know nothing about?