Hill Country Youth Orchestras turns 40 with 120 students, two campuses, and a waiting list of talent

Mark Haufler is the president of the Hill Country Youth Orchestras. He does not play an instrument.

“All the boards in town like to have a banker on it,” he explained Friday on Lead Live, drawing a laugh from Development Officer Greg Shrader.

The organization Haufler helps lead — founded in 1986 by Linda Ables, who dreamed of an orchestra for her five-year-old daughter — is now in its 40th season, serving 120 to 130 string students across campuses in Kerrville and Boerne. In fall and spring, the program expands to pick up another 30 to 50 percussion, brass, and wind students from Ingram and Kerrville. More than 2,200 students have gone through the program since its founding.

Rehearsals are held Monday nights at the First United Methodist Church in Kerrville. The Boerne campus rehearses at St. Helena’s Episcopal Church.

Shrader noted that cities like Galveston, Abilene, and Bryan-College Station do not have active youth symphonies — and Kerrville, with a fraction of their population, has had one for four decades.

“I’ve always said that Kerrville is the most cosmopolitan small town in the world,” Shrader said.

Haufler described watching students progress from their first encounter with a bow — “it sounds like an animal got shot in the woods” — to performing side-by-side with Gene Dowdy’s Symphony of the Hills professional musicians and fitting right in.

“To hear the progression as they get in the more advanced orchestras that we have,” he said, “it’s amazing.”

HCYO accepts students from kindergarten through 12th grade. No prior experience is required. The organization provides low-cost instrument rentals and full scholarships for students who need them. Auditions are held each August at the First United Methodist Church.

The program depends on private donations for 65% of its annual budget, supplemented by a Cailloux Foundation endowment that funds a teaching position and a biennial grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Following the floods, the board debated whether to proceed with fall fundraising events. They decided the community needed the arts. “We felt like by December it would be good to have a reason to celebrate where we are, how it’s been going,” Shrader said. The Holiday High Tea fundraiser is set for Dec. 5 at the Museum of Western Art. The Linda Ables Founders Golf Classic takes place each May.

To donate, register students, or join the board: hcyo.org.