The professional jazz singer currently serves as conductor for the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Deborah Liles was named executive director this month, succeeding Kevin Stewart, who had held the role since 2015 and retired this year.
“I wanted a job that would allow me to use my experience,” Lyles says. “I’ve worked in music education, business and nonprofits for many years, and I wanted a job that encompassed all of that. I didn’t want to switch jobs, but I wanted something that would allow me to use it in my career and really make a difference.”
Her first tasks will be to address financial sustainability and spread the message about the Youth Symphony Orchestra to the local community.
“I’ve worked with a lot of professionals, but I was blown away by these young musicians,” she said. “I want to root this in the community and the region. This could become a nationally recognized program.”
The nonprofit was founded in 1980 to help improve the musical abilities of middle school students in Colorado Springs School District 11. Its first season featured 70 musicians performing one show.
Currently, approximately 350 young musicians from the Pikes Peak region audition annually for nine performing ensembles, including the Pikes Peak Wind Symphony, Pinnacle Jazz, Ascent Big Band and the flagship group, Colorado Springs Youth Symphony. The Mozart String Project, which offers beginning string instruction, enrolls approximately 150 students each year.
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“I want to do everything I can to take this organization to new heights and maximize the potential of our young musicians,” Lyles said.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in theater and music performance and education from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, Lyles founded the youth music education nonprofit The Singers Studio in 1998, which he ran until 2022.
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Lyles has sung at renowned jazz venues across the country, including the John F. Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and festivals such as the Hampton Jazz Festival. Though she’s retired from performing professionally, that hasn’t stopped her from singing as a hobby. While living in Springs with her husband from 2011 to 2016, she performed at the Broadmoor and around Denver, and will be jamming in Springs and possibly even playing a song or two with the Youth Symphony Orchestra.
She discovered her love of singing as a child when she would sneak into her parents’ car to listen to Janis Joplin 8-tracks.
“My life changed,” Lyles says, “and my parents were furious that I’d driven away, but they knew I had a hunger for music and singing. I became obsessed with Tina Turner and Helen Reddy. They introduced me to Ella Fitzgerald and the Manhattan Transfer, and that was it. I knew what I wanted to do.”
Contact the author: 636-0270
Contact the author: 636-0270