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Event
Young People's Symphony Orchestra Fall Concert: November 12 and November 13
Please Note: Sunday, November 13th's concert is a free community outreach concert.
The 75th anniversary season of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) kicks off with the fall concert at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, which will feature music director/conductor David Ramadanoff and 100 young musicians in performances of Dvořák's Scherzo Capriccioso, Smetana's Vltava (The Moldau), Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, and Rimsky-Korsakoff's Capriccio Espagnol.
For the opening concert each season, Ramadanoff always carefully selects music to challenge and highlight the strengths of each section of the orchestra and to help the new members and returning students to get acquainted, and 2011 is no exception to the rule. "Every year the orchestra has a different feel to it," says Ramadanoff. He also choose music of composers whose countries the orchestra will visit on its summer 2012 European Tour to Prague, Bratislava and Vienna.
Czech composers Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák wrote music that was infused with folk tunes and melodies of their homeland. Smetana's tone poem, Má Vlast (my motherland), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land, and one movement of it, Vltava (The Moldau), is a depiction of Bohemia's great river, from its origins to its path through the countryside, as it flows through Prague, and beyond. "The music that describes the flow of the river is a lot of notes. It's not technically flashy as other pieces on the program, but to keep it flowing and make it look effortless is hard," says Ramadanoff.
Dvořák's Scherzo capriccioso is very much in the spirit of the composer's own Slavonic Dances and Slavonic Rhapsodies. The piece suggests a celebration of Nature (particularly in its rustic horn calls) and also evokes the character of a village festival (in the big, sensuous waltz theme for the strings).
Romeo and Juliet, a tone poem completed in 1880, is a work known mainly for its dramatic love theme. Ramadanoff chose it specifically for the technical and emotional range of playing the score demands of the strings and woodwinds. Tchaikovsky's friend, composer Mily Balakirev, suggested his younger friend write a piece based Shakespeare's two star-crossed lovers. "It masterfully written and really takes you on a romantic journey, but it's a romance tinged with angst that really captures teenage love," says Ramadanoff.
Rimsky-Korsakoff's orchestral showpiece Capriccio Espagnol, written in 1887, is based on Spanish folk themes from a collection entitled Cantos y bailes populares de Espana by Jose Inzenga. Originally intended as a piece for solo violin and orchestra, it retains a prominent part for solo violin and exhibits much the same flamboyance as the composer's two other major orchestral works of the same period, Scheherazade and the Russian Easter Overture. Rimsky-Korsakoff said the instrumental coloring was the essence of the piece, rather than it being a composition that was brilliantly orchestrated.
For 2011-12, violinist June Park, age 17, a member of YPSO for four years, and a senior at Piedmont High School, has been named YPSO's concertmaster. In her role, Park leads the first violin section's 20 violinists, plays all solos in orchestral works, and is in charge of leading the orchestra in tuning before concerts and rehearsals and other technical aspects of orchestra management. In addition, Park and five other YPSO musicians played in the Berkeley Symphony's season opening concert at Zellerbach Hall on October 27 as part of the ongoing internship Berkeley Symphony is offering select YPSO musicians.
Celebrating his 23rd season as Music Director/Conductor, David Ramadanoff conducts 100 YPSO musicians who range in age from 12 to 21 and hail from 26 Bay Area cities in five counties. Ramadanoff formerly served as the Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's orchestra.
Founded in Berkeley in 1935 and still based there in 2011, its 75th anniversary year, YPSO is the oldest youth orchestra in California and the second oldest in the nation. Violinist and conductor Jessica Marcelli founded YSPO at the suggestion of Clarabelle Bell, an amateur harpist and Berkeley resident, who got the idea after hearing a youth orchestra on a trip to Portland, Oregon.
For more information about YPSO, please go to www.ypsomusic.net, email ypsomusic@yahoo.com, or call 510-849-9776.
Program
Dvorák: Scherzo Capriccioso
Smetana: The Moldau
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol
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LocationFirst Congregational Church of Berkeley (View)
2345 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 8 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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