AUGUSTA – A new orchestra for young people, the Kennebec Youth Orchestra, has been organized under the auspices of the Augusta Symphony. The orchestra is expected to draw high school students and qualified middle school students from an area that includes Lewiston/Auburn, Waterville and Brunswick.

The orchestra will have full instrumentation including strings, winds, brass and percussion.

Paul Ross will be conducting the youths. He is also the music director of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Maine Youth Orchestra in Yarmouth (formerly the Brunswick Regional Youth Orchestra) and the Androscoggin Valley Community Orchestra.

Ross has been the conductor of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra since 2002 and prior to that the music director of the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra for 12 years. He studied conducting with Jean Morell and Frederick Prousnitz at the Juilliard School in New York where he earned degrees in cello and conducting.

Currently he is the cellist with the Portland String Quartet. With this ensemble he has performed nationally and internationally and conducts chamber music workshops for students and adults at Colby College. He has played with the Boston Pops and Portland Symphony Orchestras and has had a long-term interest in the development of musicians.

Weekly rehearsals will be held at the Hope Baptist Church in Manchester on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 6 p.m. beginning in late September.

For more information and audition dates, contact Lisa deWolfe, 685-9607.