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Event
Young People's Symphony Orchestra - Pops Concert
The Young People's Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor David Ramadanoff and 93 young musicians will perform their annual Pops Concert and final concert of the season at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension in Oakland.
The concert will feature two of the orchestra's concerto competition winners ---Maureen Sides and Oliver Taylor--- in concerti of Gordeli and Hummel, selections from the 2012-13 season, including works of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, and popular music of Leroy Anderson and John Philip Sousa.
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. This year's judges were Ramadanoff, YPSO Violin Coach Robin Hansen, and composer/conductor and Oakland School for the Arts music teacher, Omid Zoufonoun. This season's concerto competition had a record 16 competitors. Sides and Taylor were chosen to play on this concert while the other two winners---Beverly Fu and Joshua Herman---played on YPSO's Spring Concert on May 11.
Otar Gordeli (1928-1994) was born in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, where he attended Conservatory of Tbilisi. Gordeli composed his Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Major in 1958. The flute concerto is composed as one continuous movement. There are three closely related Allegro passages, framing two closely related Andante sections. According to the late critic Nicholas Slonimsky, writing in a review of an early recording of the Concerto, Gordeli's specialty was music "derived from the Caucasian melos." The Asian element "is conspicuous, and the harmonization is typical of traditional Russian treatment of exotic materials." The style seems reminiscent of the best-known Georgian composer, Aram Khachaturian, with some of George Gershwin's melodic turns and harmonies added to the mix. Gordeli's writing for the flute alternately demands virtuosic display and expressive cantabile.
Maureen Sides, age 15, is a sophomore at Oakland School for the Arts. She started playing the flute at age 8. Maureen currently studies with Maria Tamburrino, and has worked with many others, including Claudio Barile, Gary Woodward, Robert Stallman, and Carol Wincenc. She has performed in the Junior Bach Festival, with the San Francisco Jazz High-School All-Star Big Band, Oaktown Jazz Workshops, the Oakland School for the Arts Classical Ensemble and Jazz Band, and many other organizations. In her two years with YPSO, Maureen has played many wonderful works and went on YPSO's Central Europe Tour last summer.
Johann Hummel (1778-1837) composed his Trumpet Concerto in E-Flat in 1803 for Anton Weidinger. The solo part, to which the manuscript suggests Weidinger made significant contributions, was tailored to the capabilities of the keyed trumpet, a new instrument, which Weidinger helped to develop. The opening Allegro of Hummel's Trumpet Concerto, which Oliver Taylor will play, is cast in the traditional sonata-concerto form. Its orchestral introduction contains both of the movement's important themes: an octave-leap motive inspired by the fanfare proclivities of the solo instrument, and a pert complementary phrase in dotted rhythms initiated by the strings after a brief pause. The trumpet appropriates and elaborates these melodies as the movement progresses through a second exposition, a compact development section and a recapitulation. Interestingly enough, Hummel composed no cadenzas for this concerto.
Oliver Taylor, age 15, is a sophomore at Acalanes High School. He did not see or hear of the trumpet until age 11 when players from the San Francisco Symphony came to his school to demonstrate the various orchestral instruments. In one of Oliver's band concerts he was featured playing the Star Spangled Banner in fifth grade and things took off. Oliver currently studies under Jay Rizzeto and has played with Wayne Wallace, Wynton Marsalis, Erik Jakabson, and Mic Gillette. Currently in his second year with YPSO, in 2012 he traveled to Prague, Bratislava, and Vienna during the orchestra's Central Europe Tour. In addition, he plays in the Acalanes High School Wind and Jazz Ensembles and in a private jazz combo. He has won the Exceptional Soloist award at the Folsom Jazz Festival.
Celebrating his 24th season as Music Director/Conductor, David Ramadanoff conducts 95 YPSO musicians who range in age from 12 to 21 and hail from 29 Bay Area cities in six counties.
Founded in Berkeley in 1936, 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.
The concert is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Berkeley.
Program
Offenbach - Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld
Anderson - Belle of the Ball
Gordeli - Concertino for Flute, Maureen Sides, flute
Hummel - Trumpet Concerto, Allergro con Spirito, Oliver Taylor, trumpet
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, movements 3 and 4
Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance No. 4
Josef Strauss - Bandit Galop
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, second movement
Sousa - Washington Post March
Anderson - Home Stretch
John Williams - Raider's March
Sousa - Stars and Stripes Forever
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LocationGreek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension (View)
4700 Lincoln Ave
Oakland, CA 94704
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 5 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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