Seniors mix with slackers at orchestra's concert February 5th, 2001 - Burlington Free Press (top story) by Erica Jacobson Colin Smith looked bummed as he stood in front of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts with a group of friends Sunday afternoon. There was less than an hour left before Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio would take the stage with the Vermont Youth Orchestra and a spare ticket promised to Smith never materialized. "There was some guy around here offering me a ticket," said the 20-year-old sophomore from Johnson State College. "But I don't know where he went." This show was a must-see for Smith and other Phish fans. Even with Anastasio hitting the road for a 10-date tour of his own later this month, it wouldn't be the same as Sunday's show, argued Smith's friend Ryan Palmer. "He's not going to have an 85-piece orchestra on his solo tour," said the 20-year-old sophomore from the University of Rhode Island who had driven up for the show. "This is a one-time thing." After checking with the box office one last time, Smith returned victorious to his friends. A woman behind him offered to sell him an extra ticket for $25. Smith insisted on giving her $30. "She helped me more than she could ever have imagined," Smith said. The Flynn's sold-out crowd was a match that could only have been made in Burlington. Patchouli oil mingled with pearl necklaces. Phishheads in cargo pants and knit caps gave wide berth to seniors freshly off a shuttle bus. "Somebody behind me said as I was walking in, 'Isn't this neat? The grannies and the Phishheads,'" said Janet Rood, who helped found the VYO in 1957. Generations came together not only in the audience but also on stage. "This is a concert about relationships and influences," said Troy Peters, the orchestra's conductor. "About Trey and Ernie (Stires, a composer from Cornwall and Anastasio's mentor) and the VYO and where their music comes from." The opening pieces by Samuel Barber and Richard Strauss left many Phish fans paging through the program notes. But the addition of a small box to the left of the conductor's podium just before Stires' "Chat Rooms" caught their attention. "They're setting up the amp," one fan whispered excitedly before Anastasio appeared. Anastasio sat with his guitar in his lap and his left foot propped up on a small box. He watched Peters for cues and his first notes drew a hearty "YEE HOO" from an audience member. As Anastasio made his way through Stires' jazzy composition, his solos jammed along as if the guitarist were kicking back with a bunch of friends instead of on-stage. By intermission, Robbie Stanley of Charlotte -- the woman who sold Smith her extra ticket -- was impressed by Anastasio as well as the crowd. "It's probably the greatest variety I've seen in an audience," she said. "It's pretty neat." "Chat Rooms" and a series of variations on Stires' "Samson Riffs" by Anastasio and Peters showcased the Phish guitarist's musical talents, but his arrangement of "Guyute" focused on his skills as a composer. It was a creation that did not come easily, Peters told the audience before the piece's Burlington premiere. "We were struggling with transitions and working and working and working," Peters said of the composition, which eventually came to include pieces of "My Friend, My Friend," another Phish song. "All of a sudden, it solved everything and made the whole thing click." The piece soared along with hints of Aaron Copland and drew hoots and whistles at its conclusion, as did a string quartet encore of "The Inlaw Josie Wales" with Anastasio on acoustic guitar. As the audience filed out of the theater, Phish bassist Mike Gordon meandered through the lobby and posed for photos with fans. "I really liked it," he said of "Guyute." "I've never heard my bass lines being performed by part of an orchestra before. It was cool." Els Van Woert, a VYO cellist and Champlain Valley Union High School senior, said Burlington's crowd was calm compared with the one at Friday night's performance in Troy, N.Y., where tickets sold for $250 outside the venue and the audience made a lot more noise inside. Here, the 17-year-old said, she could see people recognize pieces of "Guyute." "You can see them getting enthusiastic in the audience." Yet the award for the most appreciative audience member easily went to the person least likely to get in -- Colin Smith. "I loved the way he put 'Guyute' together," Smith said, smiling as he met up with friends in the lobby, "and the orchestra made it float."