An apparently happy resolution to a disturbing story was talked about and demonstrated Sunday at the Pacific Musical Society's Winter Gala in the Westin St. Francis Imperial Floor, 32 stories above a city shivering in a record cold snap.
The Society's 103rd annual fund-raising event for young (and very young) musicians was eventful, featuring 12-year-old violinist Robert Chien, a 2013 Society competition winner; accompanied by his brother, Alex (a previous winner, in 2008, in Carmen Fantasy, Pablo de Sarasate's transcription of Bizet's opera.
Opera again was on the menu, with soprano Hope Briggs singing arias from La bohéme and Aida (in addition to a spiritual and Christmas songs), accompanied by James Meredith.
San Francisco Unified School District Artistic Director Susan Stauter received the Society's Symphony of Excellence Award, and she spoke of her project to develop an arts hub at and around 135 Van Ness, where the Ruth Asawa School of Arts will move in the near future.
Photos by Janos Gereben
Including the SFUSD Visual Performing Arts Department and Nourse Auditorium, Stauter said the school will be "the central jewel in the crown of a vital Arts Education Hub" in the neighborhood of the Civic Center Arts Corridor, which includes SFJAZZ, Davies Symphony Hall, War Memorial Opera House, the Veterans Building (with Herbst Theatre and the future Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera), Bill Graham Civic Center Auditorium, and more. Assuredly, you will hear more about this in this column and elsewhere.
And then came the Young Musicians Choral Orchestra Choraleers, a sensational performance with the symbolic significance mentioned in the lead of this item. These 17 super-talented youngsters, who sang up a storm, bridge the now-defunct Young Musicians Program and the successor YMCO.
They gave a cohesive and compelling choral digest of Les Misérable, the 20-minute semi-staged piece vastly superior to the three-hour-plus Broadway version I (confession time!) could never sit through. Here, the endless repetitions of a handful of themes were reduced to a managable — enjoyable — size, and instead of the Melachrino strings, here was Meredith on piano and Sam Gonzales with percussion giving it the right accompaniment.
Meredith said of the group's performance: "They have an intense effect on people because they are real and sing from their heart, many of them have lived with a lot of oppression even in their short lives."
So who are these young musicians? They, along with others, continue receiving the invaluable training and support had YMP provided, that organization no longer in existence. What was for 45 years a program on the UC Berkeley, with University support, got a somewhat messy divorce (see next item), and is now looking to the future.
Pianist, teacher, mentor, activist, and publicist Meredith, associated with YMP for 16 years, now has the same title with YMCO as he had before: chairman of the Voice Department and principal accompanist. According to him:
The new YMCO is essentially the same program, just continuing as a new 501(c)3 off campus. They still have an official affiliation with UCB and have use of Herz Hall three times a year. They have offices in downtown Berkeley.The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the East Bay Community Foundation and others came with [Program Director] Daisy [Newman] to the new incarnation.
YMCO has weekly orchestra rehearsals with conductor Anthony Parnther. I teach them their weekly vocal lessons, and prepare them for recitals — just did a big two-hour program last week with Vaughn Williams' Serenade to Music, a scene from The Barber of Seville, a big scene from West Side Story, the Les Misérable medley, and lots of individual solos.
The juniors in the program are still getting their SAT training for the tests next year, and I'll be going with the seniors to their college/conservatory audition tours in January and February. Big Band and the jazz groups are rehearsing weekly but instrumentalists are not yet having weekly private lessons. They will be added soon.