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Event
Spring Concert - Young People's Symphony Orchestra
Program
Jeremy Cavaterra The Peninsula: Overture and the Path of History from Monterey Suite
Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, I. AdagioModerato, Christopher Lu, cello
Francis Poulenc Piano Concerto in C# minor,I. Allegretto, Elizabeth Gurevich, piano
Leonard Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
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Young People's Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) continues its 81st season with the Spring Concert that will feature two winners of the orchestras 2017-18 Concerto Competition, music director/conductor David Ramadanoff, and 85 young musicians in a program of Cavaterra's Monterey Suite, Elgar's Cello Concerto, Christopher Lu, cello, Poulenc's Piano Concerto, Elizabeth Gurevich, piano, and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
The great scenic beauty and historically significant landmarks of the Monterey area inspired Jeremy Cavaterra to compose Monterey Suite after he moved there in 2012. I attempted to capture the unique atmosphere of the place and its fascinating history in musical form, says Cavaterra. The first movement, The Peninsula: Overture, grew out of an earlier sketch called Seventeen-Mile Drive, later expanded to encompass a broader sweep across the whole of the Monterey region, from the rugged coast with its windswept cypress trees to the pastoral inland. This movement is followed without pause by a brief segue, The Path of History, an homage to the winding and picturesque two-mile excursion back into Montereys heritage as the old Spanish capitol of California.
Each season, YPSO offers all members who have been in the orchestra for at least one full season the opportunity to enter the Concerto Competition to compete for the opportunity to play one movement of a concerto with the orchestra at a regular concert. Christopher Lu and Elizabeth Gurevich are two of this seasons six Concerto Competition winners.
Christopher Lu will perform the first movement of Elgars Cello Concerto. Debuted in 1919, it was the last major work the composer completed. A dramatic solo theme opens the famous work and reappears throughout the piece. Elgar composed it in wake of World War Is utter devastation and during the final months of his wife Alice's life.
"The music is powerful and is a poem of regret, beginning with vivid chords from the cello, which continue with a mournful, downward melody that is greeted by the winds. I especially like the uneasy beginnings and the middle part where I could feel a bit of sunshine peeking through the clouds. This piece is interesting to play because it requires such strength, exuberance and delicacy," says Christopher.
Christopher Lu, age 14, is a freshman at Dublin High School. He started learning to play the cello at age eight. He is currently a student of Michael Graham and Angela Lee. Christopher was the principal cellist at Young Peoples Chamber Orchestra (YPCO) before joining YPSO. This is his second season with YPSO. He was a member of the California Junior High All-State Orchestra in 2016 and 2017 and is one of the two recipients to receive a scholarship for outstanding musicianship in 2017.
Elizabeth Gurevich will perform the first movement of Francis Poulenc's Piano Concerto. Poulenc was born in France, and was part of the French group Les Six, a group of six young French composers in the 1920s. The concerto was Poulenc's last of five, and was commissioned by The Boston Symphony, which premiered it in 1950 with the composer as soloist. The general layout of the piece begins with a romantic melody that builds until it reaches a climax and goes to the next melody, a slower, more emotional line that the strings and woodwinds play, with the piano playing an accompaniment of 32nd notes. The next section is a more march-like and steady, before it returns to a smoother melody similar to the first emotional section. It builds more slowly until it reaches a second climax, and goes to the next section where the orchestra and piano alternates between their own cadenzas. After that, the orchestra returns to both the original theme and the march, before ending the piece with a fanfare.
"The best part about the piece, I think, is that the piano alternates between playing the melody and accompaniment, whether it be 32nd notes that mimic water flowing, or broken chords to add movement and shape. I also especially like that the piano part plays in unison with each of the sections of the orchestra. The most challenging aspect of the piece is being able to listen to the orchestra and handing off the melody, while receiving the accompaniment, and vice versa," says Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Gurevich, age 17, is a senior at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton. She has studied piano for 13 years and oboe for eight years. Her current piano teacher is Mutsuko Dohi-Blank, with whom she has been studying for nine years, and she studies oboe with Tom Nugent. This is her fourth and final year in YPSO, and she was a member of the orchestra for its 2016 United Kingdom tour and will be for the June 2018 Pacific Northwest Tour. She is also in her second season with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. She also completed the Advanced Level of Certificate of Merit for piano in 2017, and performed at the Honors Recital.
In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein's birth in 1918, Maestro Ramadanoff, a former student of Bernstein's, has programmed the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story as the finale of the concert. The work was created in 1961 for the New York Philharmonics concert gala that celebrated not only Bernstein's involvement with the orchestra up to that time but also a new contract that would ensure his directorship for another seven years. In the interest of efficiency, Bernstein's colleagues Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, who had just completed the orchestration of West Side Story for its film version, suggested appropriate sections of the score to Bernstein, who placed them not in the order in which they occur in the musical but instead in a new, uninterrupted sequence derived from a strictly musical rationale. Two of the most popular of the musicals songs are found in the pages of the Symphonic Dances: Somewhere and Maria.
Celebrating his 29th season as Music Director/Conductor, David Ramadanoff conducts 85 young musicians who range in age from 11 to 19, and hail from 32 Bay Area cities in eight counties.
Founded in Berkeley in 1936, YPSO is the oldest youth orchestra in California and the second oldest in the nation.
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Locationfirst congregational church (View)
2345 channing way
berkeley, CA 94704
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 5 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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