York’s own Michael Pavlik, band director, has been awarded the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s “Music Inspiration Award”.

Chosen by student nomination, the “Music Inspiration Award” is given to one band or orchestra director in the Chicago area to honor them for inspiring and motivating their students daily.

“Part of the prompt in the nomination essay for this award talked about choosing someone who inspired you to join CYSO and pursue music,” said sophomore Lauren Hund. “Immediately when I heard this, I thought of Pavlik. He has taught me that the main purpose one does music shouldn’t be to make it into the top orchestras or to be the first chair. He has taught me that music is about sharing it with others, and watching how music affects people’s lives. Mr. Pavlik has shown me this is many ways, as I continue to see how powerful music is when shared with others. Because of this, I continue to share my music in many different settings, and to many different people. So the fact that Mr. Pavlik has inspired me to pursue music by showing me the impact it has on people, caused me to nominate him for this award.”

Receiving this award is a great honor bestowed upon Mr. Pavlik, considering there are directors from over 200 schools and almost 400 private teachers helping students within the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.

“I’m looking forward to being able to publicly thank Lauren at the Concert on this Sunday at Symphony Center,” said Mr. Mike Pavlik, recipient of the award. “I’m also looking forward to briefly describing the community music outreach that we’re doing in Elmhurst. I want to tell the audience and the students on stage about the importance of sharing music in their communities with people who aren’t able to come to concerts. They need to know that the people that aren’t able to hear their music as an audience member in a concert venue, are often the people who need to hear their music the most.”