.gif){kind=avatar}
Maestro Daniel Alfred Wachs will conduct the March 15 concert. COURTESY PHOTO, What is this?
Save & share this articleThese icons link to social bookmarking sites where you can
share this story and discover new Web pages.
|
OC Youth Symphony to perform at Chapman
The group will perform its next concert on Sunday, March 15 at 4 p.m. in Memorial Hall on the Chapman University campus.
Rock on, Beethoven! Just about the hottest thing on the classical music scene right now is the youth symphony movement. The boyishly engaging phenom Gustavo Dudamel, he of the athletic conducting style and flying hair, was recently named as the next music director and conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, charging straight into one of the top music jobs in the world.
Dudamel comes straight out of a youth symphony – he conducts the estimable Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony of Venezuela, which recently wowed crowds on a U.S. tour, sparking rock-concert-like standing ovations in L.A.
Right here in Orange, you can catch the youth symphony thrill with our own Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra, dubbed the official youth symphony of OC by the board of supervisors. The OCYSO will perform its next concert on Sunday, March 15 at 4 p.m. in Memorial Hall on the Chapman University campus, with tickets costing $10 for general admission, $5 for senior citizens and students. Their program includes Richard Wagner's magisterial Overture to "Die Meistersinger," Cesar Franck's Symphony in D Minor and Eugene Goossens' Oboe Concerto.
Take it from me (full disclosure: I sit on the OCYSO board of directors; further full disclosure: I wouldn't have volunteered for the board unless I really, really believed in these kids), these young musicians are fantastic. If you want to hear classical music with energy and excitement and all the musty dust blown off it, come hear this concert. The students in the orchestra come from all over OC and range from high school to college age. They are chosen each year via a challenging audition process, and commit to performing a full season of concerts at Chapman's Memorial Hall, in the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, and in various OC communities.
One of the most important aspects of OCYSO's mission is the orchestra's Concerts for Fifth Graders at OCPAC, where the young musicians play for full houses of fifth-grade students from all around the county. For many of the youngsters in the audience, it's their first exposure to live classical music – and it makes a difference to them that it's performed by their peers. In this age when "playing music," to so many kids, means playing it through the earbuds on their iPod, it's more important than ever for them to see how music is really played.
Not the least of the pleasures of the March 15 concert will be your chance to see Maestro Daniel Alfred Wachs conducting. Wachs, who is also music director of the Chapman University Chamber orchestra and Chapman's director of instrumental studies, is an Orange County treasure. Born in Israel, he holds degrees in piano performance and conducting from the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School. He has guest-conducted such orchestras as the Auckland Philharmonia of New Zealand, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Fort Worth Symphony, and held the position of assistant conductor of the National Orchestra of France and the Minnesota Orchestra. He also served as an artist-in-residence with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.
Wachs has brought elegance, passion and a golden tone to the Chapman orchestra, and has infused the OC Youth Symphony with precision and grace. Think of him as Orange County's Dudamel.
Mary Platt is director of communications and media relations at Chapman University. She can be reached at platt@chapman.edu.
1. Keep it civil and stay on topic.
2. No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks.
3. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked.
