Young People’s Symphony Features Competition Winners
Now in its 80th season, Young People’s Symphony Orchestra is the oldest youth orchestra in California and the second oldest (after Oregon’s Portland Youth Philharmonic) among the nation’s 15,000 similar organizations. YPSO’s Spring Concert — April 29, Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church — features three young competition winners as soloists and a bold program typical of the orchestra’s music director, David Ramadanoff. Admission is free; a $15 donation is suggested.
Mostly off the beaten path, the concert program sets an example for many big organizations and their marketing departments, who favor safe warhorses. Ramadanoff’s nod to the familiar is with Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture (both requiring precision work from a large orchestra). Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber should be a standard concert item, but isn’t.
The competition winners will be featured on less familiar selections: Bernhard Henrik Crusell’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2 (first movement) with soloist Michelle Ho; Henryk Wieniawski’s Polonaise Brillante No. 1 with soloist Sofia Matthews; and Paul Creston’s Concertino for Marimba (third movement) with soloist Elizabeth Butler.
Crusell (1775 – 1838) was a Swedish-Finnish clarinetist and composer who created works to provide himself with repertoire to play. His style falls between Weber and Haydn, but his individuality shines through. Creston (born Giuseppe Guttoveggio, 1906-1985) was an Italian-American composer.
Each season, YPSO offers its members the opportunity to enter the Concerto Competition for the chance to play a movement of a concerto with the orchestra on a regular concert program. Michelle Ho, 17, is a senior at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton; Sofia Matthews, 14, is a freshman at Berkeley High School (and first violinist in the Méraki Quartet, formed at the Crowden School); percussionist Elizabeth Butler, 18, is a senior at Berkeley High School who is also a member of the S.F. Symphony Youth Orchestra and Berkeley High’s chamber winds and orchestra.
Ramadanoff has led the YPSO since 1988, and he has taken the youth orchestra on tours to China, Australia, Central Europe, New York, and Boston. His considerable experience includes stints as S.F. Symphony assistant conductor (with Seiji Ozawa), SFS associate conductor (with Edo de Waart), director of SFS educational and community activities, and music director of the Vallejo Symphony (1983 – 2015).
The Chairman Weds
Of César Ulloa, chair of the S.F. Conservatory Voice Department and patron saint to legions of singers, both the young and the famous, Frederica von Stade has said: “I’m grateful to know that there is such a guardian angel of singing right here in the Bay Area.” Last week, Ulloa was surprised by his former and current students serenading him in City Hall as he tied the knot with Gary Aliperti, his partner for the past 17 years.
In City Hall and then at a reception in the Veterans Memorial, it was a singers’ party, with Ulloa’s students providing a splendid live soundtrack. Surprise appearances included Nadine Sierra, who made a San Francisco detour between her acclaimed appearance at the Metropolitan Opera and some major companies in Europe. Daniella Mack and Alec Schrader flew in from Arizona. Julie Adams, Mario Rojas, Deborah Voigt, and many others joined San Francisco Opera’s current and former General Directors Matthew Shilvock and David Gockley.
Aliperti is a floral designer with Fleurs de France, formerly with the Ritz Carlton in Palm Beach, “where I met César and also heard Nadine Sierra in my first opera, where she sang the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel when she was in her teens — I was hooked to opera!” Now Aliperti is a major opera fan, “watching César’s students grow from the first time they come to the Conservatory to when they take off on their careers paths. César’s student have become like family to me and I love everyone one of them.”
Laurie Cohen to Retire from Mill Valley Philharmonic
After 18 years of leading the Mill Valley Philharmonic (MVP), Laurie Cohen will retire at the end of the Marin County community orchestra’s next season (May, 2018), after leading a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A psychotherapist and a cellist, Cohen began conducting at age 50. She studied locally and internationally and became assistant conductor for the San Francisco Community Music Center Orchestra.
Realizing that there were no similar opportunities for amateur musicians in Marin, Cohen started a small string ensemble there and developed it into a symphonic orchestra of 60 musicians who perform during regular seasons. The orchestra plays free concerts in local venues, which allows audiences to experience a personal connection with the performers. MVP has also provided a rare vehicle for local composers to showcase their work by commissioning 18 new works over 17 seasons.
MVP’s board of directors announced the news by saying that “Laurie’s retirement will mark a significant milestone for our community and for the Philharmonic. Her multi-talented and multifaceted leadership has made so much possible. We have a solid foundation on which to build upon her legacy of musicianship, innovation, and community engagement.”
Cohen said “As a team, MVP has come a long way artistically, and the next year gives us the opportunity to celebrate our successes — and MVP’s future — with our fabulous musicians, supporters, community partners, volunteers and audiences, who have together made MVP what it is today.”
MVP’s current season will conclude with the MVP Local Parks Tour of free concerts in Golden Gate Park, Angel Island, and Fort Mason on June 3, 4, and 11, 2017, and a free concert in the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley on May 31.
Lamplighters Presents a Musical about (and by) Gilbert & Sullivan
Fans of Mike Leigh’s film Topsy-Turvy about William Schwenck Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan can look forward to San Francisco’s venerable Lamplighters Music Theatre closing its 64th season.
On tap will be a reprise of the company’s original musical, A Song to Sing, O!: The Gilbert & Sullivan Story, described as “the fascinating story of one of the greatest partnerships in theater history, as told in their own words through their letters and diaries, with musical highlights from all 13 of their comic operas.”
Artistic Director Emeritus Barbara Heroux wrote and directed the musical, which features Lamplighters regulars accompanied by a salon orchestra conducted by Baker Peeples.
Performance schedule: April 22—23 in Herbst Theater, May 4 in Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, and May 14 in the Menlo-Atherton Center for the Performing Arts.