RPYO Spring Concert

Series sponsored by

Join us for RPYO’s final concert of the season! Tickets are pay-what-you-want with all proceeds going directly to the RPYO mission.

Xavier Joseph was introduced to the violin at age three, and what began as small hands tracing notes has grown into fourteen years of shaping sound through imagination. He studies at the Eastman Community Music School with Mrs. Janet Milnes and Professor George Taylor of the Eastman School of Music, whose guidance has strengthened his technical foundation and expanded his freedom of expression.

He has appeared as both soloist and chamber musician in ensembles throughout the Rochester area. He has served as concertmaster across multiple ensembles, most notably the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra––an ensemble he holds especially close––as well as the Monroe All-County Orchestra and his school orchestra. With the RPYO, he gave a featured performance of John Williams’ Theme from Schindler’s List in 2025. Selected in consecutive years for both the NYSSMA Area and Conference All-State Orchestras, he has earned recognition for both leadership and musicianship at the state and regional levels. A formative summer as first violinist at the Castleman Quartet Program further reshaped his sense of performance; immersed in demanding chamber repertoire, he began to see music less as presentation and more as shared joy. Recognized with numerous orchestral awards and merit scholarships, including the National Student Orchestra Award, he continues to seek works that demand intensity and vulnerability.

Outside of music, Xavier is a senior at McQuaid Jesuit engaged in biomedical research and engineering, and a varsity swimmer. Across disciplines, he is motivated by the same belief that guides his musicianship: that meaningful work, whether musical or otherwise, is best shared with others.

Renee Groesbeck is a senior at Williamson High School and currently is the co-principal percussionist of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. She studies percussion at the Eastman Community Music School (ECMS), where she is pursuing a Pre-Collegiate Diploma with Honors. Renee has performed with numerous All-County, Area All-State, and Conference All-State ensembles. She is an active member of the ECMS Percussion Ensemble and regularly performs with her school’s concert band, jazz band, choir, treble choir, and chamber singers. In addition to percussion, she participates in her school’s musicals, most recently playing Donna in Mamma Mia.

Beyond music, Renee serves as president of her school’s Tri-M Music Honor Society, National Honor Society, and Mentor Network. She is also a varsity soccer player and enjoys reading, hiking, baking, and traveling.

Renee plans to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering and to continue her musical pursuits. She would like to thank her family and her many teachers for their continued support.

Jared Chase is an accomplished conductor, educator, and trumpeter based in Rochester, New York. Now in his second season as Music Director of the Penfield Symphony Orchestra, he will lead the PSO in performances of repertoire including Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Hovhaness’s Mysterious Mountain, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Stravinsky’s Firebird as well as other works by Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Williams, Higdon, Dvorak and others.

Chase is also Music Director at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsford, where he has led performances of major choral-orchestral works by composers such as Fauré, Rutter, Vivaldi, Haydn, and Handel. From 2017 to 2025, he served as Music Director of the New York State Ballet. His versatile career spans chorus, orchestra, musical theatre, opera, ballet, and wind ensemble, and he has guest conducted ensembles across the United States and Canada. In higher education, Chase has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Nazareth University, where he is Director of Wind Studies. At Nazareth, he teaches conducting and chamber music while leading the Nazareth Wind Symphony, an ensemble invited to perform at major conferences including the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA), and New York State Band Directors Association (NYSBDA), and which has also toured internationally. 

Chase earned degrees in music education and trumpet performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and completed both his Master of Music in trumpet performance and Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). As a trumpeter, he remains an active freelance performer with the Wilmot Brass Quintet and has appeared with many professional orchestras across the United States.