Originally from Washington, Lyle came to Oakland for her graduate degree from Mills College. Besides her work in the public school system, she is current director of the MUSE project. So it was only natural that she be given the task of writing a work which could somehow simultaneously fit the interests as well as capacities of beginners and professionals. Her four-movement suite, while no rival to the Beethoven Ninth, proved to be effective and moving. Each movement was named for an aspect of Earhart's round-the-world flight, each motivated by the music of the countries she traversed. “Electra”, named for Earhart's plane, had taken off from Oakland for Puerto Rico, before heading to South America. So that movement featured not only Latin rhythms, but a brief poem in Spanish, sung by the kids, accompanied by the Symphony.

The suite was filled with such interconnected touches, suggesting next the music of West Africa, the Middle East, then Asia. As a final poignant touch, the suite ends with the percussion tapping out in Morse code Earhart's final radio call letters before she disappeared over the Pacific.

Morgan opened the evening with an elegant account of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and closed with a spiffy version of Schubert's Symphony No. 5. The soloist was the young percussionist Fred Morgan, winner of the orchestra's Young Artists Competition last June. This Morgan, who is unrelated to conductor Morgan, played a thrilling, throughly virtuoso performance of William Kraft's Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra.

Percussionist Morgan, timpanist of the San Francisco Youth Symphony for five years, graduated from the SF Conservatory of Music last year. He has also worked at the Aspen Festival and is currently taking courses at Cal State Hayward. As a timpanist in my early career, I can vouch that Morgan would be a credit to any orchestra. He plays with great control of dynamics and timbre, his intonation was excellent, even in the glissando oozing of melodic bits Kraft requires.

All the various stunt technique came off beautifully, like playing the five drums with his hands, snare drum sticks, what have you. Best of all, he phrases the textures. It's not simply a matter of tapping out rhythmic patterns, but making music of them. Beyond all that, Morgan's playing reveals innate musicality, not a common virtue among percussionists. This is a young man destined for a major orchestra.

Conductor Morgan provided a well controlled, flashy accompaniment to the Concerto. His Schubert seemed a tad brisk, but after all, this was the work of a 19-year old composer on a concert which generally celebrated youth. Even so, the wonderfully elegant Ravel got the more polished performance, sensuous rather than flashy, and all the more rewarding for that.

Returning to the Oakland schools problem, I can't help but wonder if the powers that be realize what the general quality of their teachers represents in Oakland, and indeed, around the state and country. To pull off a project like this one joining the Symphony and the elementary school students with competence and invention against such an unlikely format is, well, a miracle. And the day of the premiere, the composer-teacher is given her notice? It seems more a tasteless joke than a reality.