San Francisco Classical Voice

YOUTH MUSIC REVIEW Lighting the Spark at Cazadero

July 31, 2001

By Carl Stanley

The gorgeous site for the Cazadero Performing Arts Music Camp, in the hills among the redwoods of the North Bay, is pleasure enough to visit, but just as important is what it represents for the future of music in the entire Bay Area. It was great to see young music students and respected professional musicians from throughout the region working and performing together.

I was visiting my son, a counselor in training, the weekend before last, at the end of the second junior high–level music camp and just in time for the concert performance. I found him at his tent, surrounded by his junior high students. They had bonded with him musically and personally, and he too was growing. Besides helping them with their music, he was responsible for them 24 hours a day, under the supervision of the older counselors. Between counselors and trainees, every 10 to 12 students had direct interaction with a responsible musician and mentor.

The concerts take place in an outdoor amphitheater, with the stage under a canvas roof and the audience on seats on the hillside. I enjoyed every minute of the 2�-hour concert.

Living with the Pros

Each of the five performing groups utilized professional faculty and counselors. As the directors all acknowledged, the conductor had a lot of assistance. Each instrumental group was given a daily sectional rehearsal by a music pro. For instance, the cellos were coached by Dawn Foster-Dobson and the violins by Ryo Fukuda. To live with and learn from the pros has got to be a great privilege. Sitting next to professionals in the group performances, students were surely pushed to levels of playing they had never reached before.

The orchestra opened with Beethoven's Egmont Overture (a challenging piece for any ensemble), with solo passages handled by the students. There were some missed and sour notes, sure, but what a great taste of the future. The orchestra closed with Berlioz' "March to the Scaffold" (Sinfonie Fantastique), a rousing finale conducted by Doris Fukawa (a former student at Cazadero and now a respected violinist and teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music).

The jazz band, led by Rick Condit (from McNeese State University) was outstanding. It's amazing how fast the students learned some very sophisticated jazz charts. They truly got in a "serious groove," taking the improvised solos while the proud teachers stood to the side and encouraged them to new levels.

Learning from Scat Singing

The symphonic band performed under the direction of Tim Smith (Cal State Hayward), who has a knack for sparking new life into any such group. Sang!, by Dana Wilson, was exceptional. It started with the band singing an extended scat vocal rhythm with intricate yet catchy syncopation. They went on to play the rest of the piece using the rhythm sung before — a great way to teach rhythms quickly and then apply them. And some of those rhythms were enough to humble any jazz band I've heard recently.

The chorus, led by Kathryn Smith (also from Cal State Hayward), performed some beautiful arrangements, including the traditional Japanese selection Sakura.

There were parents in the audience, of course, but also professional musicians, conductors, and music teachers from throughout the Bay Area — including Robert Lutt, Cazadero Music Camp founder. I saw several of my own students from Berkeley among the performers. I look forward to the spark they will surely bring back to our program in the coming school year. I think I understand why a music teacher would give up a treasured summer vacation for a chance to be involved in a musical project like this.

(Carl Stanley, Orchestra Personnel Manager/Education Coordinator of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, teaches music and performance in orchestras throughout the Bay Area.)