A bevy of San Francisco Bay Area youth orchestras offer a spring bouquet of concerts, and more, this May. One musical group, the El Camino Youth Symphony, is even serving up their season finale á la mode with an all-you-can-eat ice cream sundae social following its May 10 performance. Whether it's Gustav Mahler or Kurt Weill, there is something onstage over the next few weeks for every musical taste in the family.
May 4 and 16: On Sunday, May 4, at 5 p.m., the Oakland Youth Orchestra celebrates its 50th anniversary with a gala featuring a spring concert and auction. Highlighting the concert will be a suite from the musical soundtrack to the hit television show House of Cards by Emmy award-winning composer and OYO alumnus Jeff Beal. Beal, who played trumpet with the OYO from 1979-1981, will attend the gala, which will also honor OYO alumnus Benjamin Simon (violin 1970-1972), music director of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra; and Doris Fukawa (violin 1972-1974), executive director of the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley.
At the gala Simon will lead the Oakland Youth Orchestra, whose musician roster usually ranges between 70 to 88 members, in the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. OYO artistic director Michael Morgan will conduct Beal's hyper-charged House of Cards Suite.
Beal pulled pieces from the show's soundtrack to create about a 15-minute suite, said the composer, in a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home. "It's not your sort of West Wing-type of Washington," he said, referring to the way, critics say, his music for the series foreshadows and captures the political machinations of its characters. "It's not only politics" he added, "it's Shakespearean ... Richard III and Macbeth. There's that sense of villainy, scheming, and manipulation, but also humor."
Morgan had watched the Netflix television series, starring Kevin Spacey, not knowing that the show's powerful theme and music soundtrack were composed by the OYO alumnus. Once the connections were made, the two men worked together, Morgan said, to have the piece on the gala program.
"There's a lot of tension that underlies the whole show and the music actually matches the show very well," said Morgan, in a phone interview.
It was while playing with the OYO as a teen, first under conductor Robert Hughes, and then under Kent Nagano, that Beal first knew he wanted to be a composer. "It really lit a fire under me," said the composer about the youth orchestra. Symphonies like OYO offer important opportunities for young musicians, he said: "For kids who are really passionate about music, it's a chance for them to meet their peers and to be part of something where other kids share your passion."
Morgan, who has long championed music education, agrees. "We know that most of our musicians won't go into the field professionally," he said, "but we want to give them a solid musical background."
Beal's advice to budding young composers? "Do what you can to get your music played," said Beal, who completed his formal musical training at the Eastman School of Music. "The only way to learn is to write pieces and get people to perform them. Listen to, and study as many kinds of music as you can. Filter-out stuff out there that doesn't speak to you, and filter-in what does."
A few weeks later, on May 16, at Oakland's art deco Paramount Theatre, Morgan will conduct the Oakland Youth Orchestra with members of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, where he is music director, and the Oakland Symphony Chorus in Hector Berlioz's Requiem with tenor Thomas Glenn. Morgan said nearly 120 musicians will be onstage for the monumental work in addition to the chorus, of which Lynne Morrow is music director.
The two concerts showcase the versatility of OYO's young musicians, said Morgan, adding that Beal's House of Cards Suite and the Berlioz each offer different challenges to them. "Both pieces are within their technical ability. The thing about pop music for a youth orchestra is to make it sound good," said Morgan. "The Berlioz isn't a technically difficult piece to play but it's an opportunity to celebrate the merger of all three music organizations and bring them together to perform."
More information.
May 1, 2, 3: Meanwhile, the UC Berkeley Symphony and Chorus, with soloists Ann Moss and Kathleen Moss, will perform Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (No. 2) Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 3, before taking off in June for a tour of Central Europe:
More information.
May 3:
On Saturday, May 3, at 8 p.m. the Berkeley-based Young People's Symphony Orchestra will showcase their spring concert (silent auction to begin at 6:30 p.m.), and on Sunday, May 4, at 3 p.m., at the El Cerrito Performing Arts Center. The performances will feature 2014 Concerto Competition winners Rachel Adams and Ellie Kanayama. Music director David Ramadanoff conducts Symphony No. 10 in E minor (Op. 93) by Dmitri Shostakovich and the Le Corsaire overture by Hector Berlioz.
More information.
May 10: On Saturday, May 10, at 6:15 p.m., the El Camino Youth Symphony will celebrate the final concert of the season followed by an all-you-can-eat ice cream social at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto. All ages welcome. Admission: $15. See the concert listing for more details. It's a chance to hear ECYS music director Camilla Kolchinsky, Ph.D, conduct before she passes the baton to Jindong Cai, Ph.D, currently the music director of Stanford University. Dr. Kolchinsky will continue with ECYS, completing the current season with the senior symphony, and returning next season as associate conductor for the Sinfonietta and Galbraith Honor Strings, according to the ECYS website.
More information.
May 10 and 17:
Also on Saturday, May 10, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra does a concert of Kurt Weill in collaboration with Stanford Live. Then on May 17, they present their spring concert.
More information.
May 17:
That same Saturday, May 17, at 7:30 pm in Palo Alto, Benjamin Simon conducts the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra in a free concert called "Across the Centuries." The program includes: Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 1910 Fantasia, which was inspired by a 16th-century melody written by his English compatriot Thomas Tallis. Ernest Bloch’s lifelong exploration of ancient Jewish themes and melodies finds an outlet in his soulful Baal Shem. And there's a little Handel thrown in to the mix. Violinist Jory Fankuchen, a PACO coach and teacher, makes his solo debut at the concert.
More information.
May 18: Last but not least. On Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m., Donato Cabrera conducts the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in a full concert of German heavies: Wagner, Haydn, Richard Strauss. Recommended for children age 12 and over. Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra is always a hit with all ages whether you've seen Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or not.
More information.