Kids Around the Bay

Janos Gereben on May 24, 2012
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The Irving Klein String Competition Nears

Mayumi Kanagawa, who won last year's Klein Competition, at age 16, performed in Walt Disney Concert Hall last month Photo by Scott Chernis
Mayumi Kanagawa, who won last year's Klein Competition, at age 16, performed in Walt Disney Concert Hall last month
Photo by Scott Chernis

Finals of the 27th annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition will be held June 9-10 in San Francisco State's Knuth Hall.

Winners receive prizes and performance opportunities with Marin Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, Noontime Concerts, and Music in the Vineyards.

The contest is for string players ages 15 to 23. Mitchell Sardou Klein has been artistic director of the competition since its inception in 1986. He says:

Past winners continue to tell us that the concert appearances they receive are priceless, propelling their careers more than anything else related to the competition. Nothing parallels performing a major concerto work with an outstanding orchestra in front of a full house. It is the real deal. We are grateful to our donors and community partners for making these opportunities possible.

This year’s grand prize is given in memory of Marvin T. Tepperman; the second prize is given by Ruth Short in honor of Elaine H. Klein. Winners also receive the opportunity to make presentations and conduct master classes in schools on the Peninsula and in San Francisco.

This year’s semifinalists were selected from 78 entrants from three continents and some of the nation’s top conservatories. More than 25 percent of this year’s Klein applicants attend the Juilliard School.

The semifinalists are:

    * Sarah Harball, 23, violist born in Seattle, studies with Atar Arad at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music
    * Austin Huntington, 17, cellist born in Saint Joseph, MI., studies with Richard Hirschl and attends St. Joseph’s High School in South Bend, Ind.
    * Chris Irvine, 21, cellist born in Oberlin, OH, studies with Paul Katz at New England Conservatory of Music
    * Jean Kim, 16, cellist born in Sleepy Hollow, NY, studies with Minhye Clara Kim and attends Sleepy Hollow High School and the Juilliard School Pre-College Division
    * Natalie Lin, 23, violinist born in New Zealand, studies with Paul Kantor at Cleveland Institute of Music.
    * Richard Narroway, 20, cellist from Australia, studies with Hans Jorgen Jensen at Northwestern University
    * Su Hyun Park, 20, violinist born in South Korea, studies with Ronald Copes and Donald Wellerstein at Juilliard
    * Emma Steele, 22, violinist born in Chicago, studies with Cyrus Forough at Carnegie Mellon University
    * Alexandra Switala, 18, violinist born in Irving, Texas, studies with Roland and Almita Vamos and is home-schooled in Grapevine, TX
The jury includes Richard Festinger (whose commissioned work is performed by the contestants), Michael Gelfand, Marc Gottlieb, Alan Grishman, San Francisco Symphony violist David Kim, Melvin Margolis, Donna Mudge, Marin Symphony Music Director Alisdair Neale, Alice Schoenfeld, and San Jose Chamber Orchestra Music Director Barbara Day Turner.
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SFS Youth Orchestra Sails For Europe

In the Youth Orchestra brass section
In the Youth Orchestra brass section

The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra is leaving on its ninth international tour this summer. It will perform concerts in Regensburg’s Auditorium Maximum, Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig, Wiesbaden’s Rheingau Festival, Luxembourg’s Festival international d’Echternach, the Berliner Philharmonie, and Europa Hall in Salzburg.

The orchestra's Bon Voyage concert on June 16 at Davies Symphony Hall features Garrick Ohlsson in the Grieg Piano Concerto; Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 is also on the program, conducted by Donato Cabrera.

Tour repertoire consists of Bay Area composer John Adams’s Shaker Loops, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, and Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture. Pianist Lars Vogt joins the SFSYO tour, performing the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor.

The orchestra consists of some 100 young people, ranging from age 12 to 21. The average tenure of musicians is three to four years. On the first tour of Europe, in 1986, the Youth Orchestra won the City of Vienna Prize at the International Youth and Music Festival.

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S.F. Ballet School Student Showcase

WanTing Zhao and Henry Sidford in Petipa's Le Corsaire
WanTing Zhao and Henry Sidford in Petipa's Le Corsaire
Photo by Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet's Ballet School presents its annual Student Showcase — of class demonstrations and repertory works — in the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, May 30-June 1.

A fund-raising dinner following the May 31 performance will honor Ballet School Associate Director Lola de Avila, who will be stepping down in August to oversee the full-time operation of the Maria de Avila Ballet School in her native Spain.

Under de Avila’s direction, the school embarked on its first European audition tour earlier this year; its men’s program was expanded and strengthened; a standard for curriculum was set; and currently, over half of the company members have received their training at the Ballet School. Patrick Armand assumes the duties of associate director on September 1. (The school's director is SFB Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson.)

In the Student Showcase, advanced-level students will perform George Balanchine’s Western Symphony; an excerpt from Act 2 of August Bournonville’s La Sylphide; Spinae, a work by SFB Corps de Ballet member Myles Thatcher; and Dunas, a new work by SFB Corps de Ballet member Francisco Mungamba. Both Thatcher and Mungamba trained at the SF Ballet School.

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